Reporter Gep Leeflang (58) van the Stentor has been nominated for the Tegel, the most important journalistic prize in the Netherlands. Leeflang has been nominated in the ‘Regional/Local’ category with his story about backroom politics in municipalities.
“It’s a great honor,” Leeflang responds. “I only consider the nomination as a prize and recognition for my work. And if municipalities still have doubts about this, they will see that it is not nonsense that I am confronting them with.”
The journalist from the Stentor is often regarded as a ‘trick in the bone’. He was seen in that capacity at the beginning of this month Zembladocumentary The Peking ducks of Gelderland, about the duck slaughterhouse Tomassen Duck-To in Ermelo. “I see that as a journalistic nickname.”
Read Gep Leeflang’s nominated story here:
Dutch municipalities are breaking the law en masse by going into backroom deals
Unruly in practice
Regarding his story about backroom politics in Dutch municipalities, in which Leeflang exposed the lack of administrative transparency: “It is very important to continue to critically monitor governments. They are legally obliged to be open, and only in exceptional cases may they deviate from this during meetings.”
However, he discovered that practice is difficult.
“For example, they no longer call certain meetings ‘meetings’, but ‘meetings’. A word game with which they think they can justify closing the door. Wrongly, because there are clear rules that they must adhere to.”
Leeflang previously won an award for reporting on Epe
Gep Leeflang won another prestigious journalistic prize two years ago: the Saskia Stuiveling Prize. This is awarded to journalists who distinguish themselves with political reporting at local and regional level. Leeflang was awarded at the time for his controversial dossier on the administrative culture in Epe. You can read more about that in this story.
Delicious
Governments in particular need to be monitored critically, the journalist believes. “The obviousness with which this backroom politics has crept in is not okay.”
With a smile: “And yes, I love it when I manage to expose such abuses.”
The two other nominations in this category are in the name of the IJmuider Courant (reports about Tata Steel) and Fresh Concrete (Rotterdam families in times of crisis).
Unfortunately, we cannot show this social post, live blog or otherwise because it contains one or more social media elements. Accept the social media cookies to still show this content.
Unfortunately, we cannot show this social post, live blog or otherwise because it contains one or more social media elements. Accept the social media cookies to still show this content.
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and never miss anything from the stars.
Yes, I want free unlimited access
Tags: Stentor reporter Gep Leeflang race prestigious prize Exposing abuses wonderful Domestic
