Maarten Keulemans, science editor at de Volkskrant, has been elected Journalist of the Year 2021. The jury praises his ‘tireless reporting’ of the corona pandemic.
The trade magazine Villamedia awards an annual prize to the journalist who has delivered exceptional work. As far as the jury is concerned, Keulemans underlines “the high level of Dutch journalism”.
“He tirelessly puts forward facts and knows how to interpret them clearly, comes back to previous conclusions if necessary, and enters into a conversation with absolutely everyone,” says the jury report. “As far as the jury is concerned, Keulemans is a contemporary journalist.”
The jury calls the long-running series ‘Keulemans in Quarantine’ as the pinnacle of his work. “He does not shut himself up in his ivory tower, but stands in the middle of his audience and answers the questions that arise from them. He does not take sides.”
Keulemans considers it an “unwise honour” that he is Journalist of the Year. “It is a prize that is awarded by colleagues. That means something to me. Now I am in a list of people I greatly admire, such as Bas Haan (Nieuwsuur) and Olaf Koens (RTL Nieuws).”
Twitter en Café World Pain
“The jury report states that I will receive the prize for the accessible and open way in which I try to do my work. I am proud that I have been awarded this prize,” says the science journalist. “I spend a lot of time on Twitter and debate at Café Weltschmerz. I do that in my spare time and I find it important. It is important that we are transparent in journalism about who we are and what considerations we make. cool that the jury recognizes this.”
Keulemans has been working at de Volkskrant for about ten years. Before that he worked for the Leidsch Dagblad, the NOS and Quest, among others.
