Journeys to democracy

I have known Rob Vreeken for over 30 years, since we met in Amsterdam in the early 1990s. He worked at the leading Dutch daily newspaper De Volkskrant, that we visited — women journalists from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, and Indonesia, in The Netherlands on a month-long fellowship. I have lost contact with the other fellows but Rob and I stayed in touch on email.

The last time we actually met was when he traveled to Pakistan as a foreign correspondent, soon after my daughter was born. He visited our home in Karachi and met my family, thoughtfully bringing along a baby gift. He has also been very supportive of my ventures, from Aman ki Asha, to the Southasia Peace Action Network and Sapan News, , the media outlet I started in August 2021.

Since ‘retiring’ from De Volkskrant a few years ago, Rob has been the paper’s Istanbul correspondent. After the Oct. 7 attacks, he also reported from Israel and the West Bank.

In November, he shared some photos which I thought would be interesting for my students at Emerson College, where I taught a Global Journalism course last fall. He subsequently shared his experiences with my students, who really appreciated his insights – like, it’s okay to say “I (or we) don’t know” rather than rushing to provide opinion or information, and the importance of acknowledging mistakes that we as journalists and human beings make.

I’m sharing Rob’s first piece written specially for Sapan News. It is a clear and fair analysis of the ICJ hearings at the Hague that he watched live from Istanbul.

You can see the photos I shared with my class in a slideshow embedded in his piece at the Sapan News website. The article, like all our features, is available for syndication with due credit to Sapan News – http://www.sapannews.com.

Read: What Israel fears above all – a Sapan News syndicated feature

Check out the Sapan News website and contribute to help support nonprofit journalism. All contributions are tax-deductible, thanks to Sapan News’ fiscal sponsor Tasveer.

Thank you!

Filed under: journalism, Palestine, Violence in the name of religion | Tagged: Dutch international correspondent, dutch journalist, emerson college, global journalism, hague, icj hearings, Israel, Oct. 7, Palestine, west bank |