Free indirect discourse in newspaper reports Gisela Redeker 0. Introduction It has recently been noted (Onrust 1994) that two journalists at the Dutch daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad have introduced a new style of reporting on soccer and other ball games. 1 Their articles present a mix of factual reporting of events, background information, interviews and commentary, employing a variety of literary techniques. Most notably, reactions and opinions are often reported in the form of free indirect discourse (henceforth FID), as exemplified by the italicized sentences in (1) and (2) (from Onrust 1994:196,199; translation mine—GR): (1) [NRC Handelsblad, 31 January 1994] “Ik dacht dat het [goud] al binnen was”, zei hij na afloop nog steeds ongelovig. Gebrek aan ervaring had zijn zicht vertroebeld. Een tactische ingreep had hem de zege gekost. [...] “I thought that it [the gold] was already won,” he said afterwards, still unbelieving. Lack of experience had dimmed his vision. A tactical maneuver had cost him the victory. [...] (2) [NRC Handelsblad, 17 April 1994] Danny Blind was getergd, Frank de Boer voelde zich vernederd. Ze waren de beste Ajacieden geweest. Zij hadden zich nog kunnen weren. Ze zochten naar excuses, ze maakten verwijten naar medespelers. Dit was onverklaarbaar, dit was teveel geweest. Uit hun woorden sprak machteloosheid. Danny Blind was provoked, Frank de Boer felt humiliated. They had been the best Ajacids. They could still have fought back. They were looking for excuses, they made accusations toward teammates. This was inexplicable, this had been too much. Their words expressed helplessness. By presenting the italicized sentences as FID, the journalists are blurring the boundary between their own perceptions or commentary and the original experiencers’ reports: There is a strong contextually motivated suggestion that 1 In developing the ideas presented in this paper, I have benefitted from discussions with many colleagues, most importantly José Sanders, Jeanette van den Broek, and students participating in my course at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 1995. I also gratefully acknowledge valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper by Theo Janssen and an anonymous reviewer.