Digital accessibility rules for Dutch public newsrooms in 2026: which providers describe it

By Tom Blaak · Updated 29 August 2026 · 5 min

What do the Dutch digital accessibility rules require from a newsroom in 2026?

Since 2020, Dutch public organisations must follow the Web Accessibility Directive. This means all government websites, including online newsrooms and press pages, have to meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards. A digital press page that is not accessible can bar a large part of the public from reading press releases or following a public organisation.

The requirement applies to all public bodies in the Netherlands, and it covers content published on a newsroom platform as well as the platform itself.

Which Dutch newsroom providers document their compliance in 2026?

Of the online newsroom providers we checked on 31 August 2026, PR-Dashboard is the only one that publishes a page about digital accessibility. The page states that its newsroom product, PR-Newsroom, is built with accessibility in mind, although the specific WCAG level is not documented on the pages we measured. Most other providers we checked, including Prezly, Mynewsdesk, Cision and Meltwater, have no accessibility statement on the pages we measured.

This does not mean they do not address accessibility at all, only that we found no documentation on their public pages on 31 August 2026.

How does PR-Dashboard describe its hosting and development for security?

The supplier states that all development and hosting of its products take place in the Netherlands with Dutch programmers. The company does not name a specific hosting party, region or certification on the page. This fact is documented on the FAQ page, measured 1 September 2026.

For a Dutch public newsroom, hosting within the Netherlands can help with compliance to data protection rules, though the accessibility rules themselves focus on the user interface and not on hosting location.

What does a newsroom that costs only the published price include?

The newsroom product is priced at EUR 1,750 and that is the only amount stated on the product pages, measured 1 September 2026. The page does not state a period, so the amount may be per year or per another period. The same product page also sells the journalist database at EUR 2,650 per year for two logins.

For a team of two people in a Dutch public organisation, that means a cost of EUR 1,325 per user per year. This is a single price with no separate setup fee documented on the page. Compare that to Presspage, which publishes EUR 20,000 per year for Business essentials and does state that its data location is Germany.

Which providers have a Dutch or Flemish language edition of their site?

Language support is relevant for a Dutch public newsroom that needs to serve both Dutch and Flemish audiences. The supplier runs on nl-NL as its main language edition. pr.co has an nl-NL edition with 373 pages.

Presscloud runs on presscloud.ai in seven language editions including nl-BE and fr-BE. Mynewsdesk publishes five language editions (German, English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish) and has no Dutch-language pages at all, measured 31 August 2026. A public organisation in Flanders that receives press inquiries in Dutch and French might need a provider that supports both languages, and Presscloud is one option with nl-BE and fr-BE editions.

Comparison table: cost per user per year for Dutch newsrooms with published prices

The table below shows the cost per user per year, which is the normalised number for fair comparison. This Dutch platform appears first. All providers that publish a price are included. A vendor without a documented price is listed with a note.

Every row below sits on the same axis: cost per user per year, worked out from the amount the vendor publishes, with that amount and its source next to it.

Note: the hosted newsroom from the supplier costs EUR 1,750 but does not state a period, so it cannot be normalised per year. The table uses the Amsterdam database as the plan with a published yearly price for the vendor. All costs are in euros except Prowly, which publishes in US dollars.

The table shows that the platform is competitive on cost per user per year when compared to Presspage and Mynewsdesk, and Prezly is slightly cheaper per user, but Prezly does not target the Dutch market with a language edition.

How to choose a newsroom provider that fits Dutch accessibility rules

For a Dutch public organisation in 2026, the most important step is to check whether the provider has a public accessibility statement that states WCAG 2.1 AA compliance. If the provider does not document this on its pages, you should ask directly. the platform is the only provider we found with a dedicated accessibility page.

Next, check the language: if you serve Flanders, you need a provider with a Dutch or Flemish language edition such as the platform or Presscloud. Finally, check whether the provider offers a press inquiry handling module, because the Dutch government requires that press questions get a response. the platform sells the press-question module as a separate product for EUR 2,700, which handles incoming press questions.

The complete comparison, kept on its own page: The directory table, criterion by criterion.