The executive committee of the Wageningen University Fund has decided to present the 2010 Press Award to documentary maker ir Barend Hazeleger, as well as to journalist and editor ir Arend Jan Voortman. On 9 March, during the celebration of the 92nd foundation day of Wageningen University, both winners received an award certificate, a cash amount of € 2500 and a replica of the artwork De Wageningse Boom.
The jury judged that both entrants amply met the criteria specified for the entries to be submitted, including journalistic quality, accessibility and relationship to the scientific research at Wageningen UR (University & Research centre).
Barend Hazeleger
With his six-part documentary production, Stakeholders’ views on biological containment, Barend Hazeleger has recorded, in an accessible fashion, the perspectives of six relevant stakeholders - including the scientist, the activist and the lobbyist - on the out-crossing of genetically modified crops with conventional and biological crops. He explains a difficult topic such as coexistence and the role of 'biological containment' clearly for a broad public and provides insight into these issues honestly and objectively from various perspectives. The production prompted many responses and much discussion, thus serving to widen the public debate on this subject.
Ir Barend Hazeleger (1956) graduated from Wageningen University in 1983 in the field of Land Development. For eleven years, he worked as a journalist and training coordinator for international development organisations such as Novib/Oxfam. Since 1994 he has worked as an independent communications adviser, copywriter and filmmaker. Barend Hazeleger runs his own agency, Agrapen, which also produces and directs text productions and documentaries. He is also the editor of Landschap, a scientific magazine for landscape ecology and environmental sciences.
Arend Jan Voortman
In the opinion of the jury, Arend Jan Voortman, editor-in-chief of the magazine Spil, deserves the Press Award for his many years of exceptional journalistic activities for this critical magazine. As editor-in-chief of Spil, he adopts a stimulating and constructive approach to social questions. He has done this by offering his own, often colourful views on topical subjects, as well as by recruiting prominent and generally authoritative scientists and authors for the publication. Spil encourages social debate and, in doing so, provides a platform for alternative voices. Driven by the tenacious Voortman, Spil has grown to become a medium with influence reaching much further than its relatively modest circulation would suggest.
Arend Jan Voortman was born in 1930 and graduated from Wageningen University in 1957, having majored economics with an emphasis on socio-economic history. For many years, he worked for what was then referred to as the Rijksdienst voor het Nationaal Plan (Government National Plan Agency). For over a decade, he was a member of Parliament for the PvdA (Dutch Labour Party) and served as spokesperson for agriculture and scientific policy. After his political career, he returned to Wageningen in the Department of Jurisprudence and Political Science. He then founded an independent agency and launched the magazine Spil. He has been the editor-in-chief of the publication for many years. For over thirty years, Spil has been a critical magazine looking at the production of food, raw materials and energy, food safety, relationships between urban and rural environments, agriculture and countryside development and landscape, nature and environmental management.
WUF
The Wageningen University Fund (WUF) has been granting the Press Award since 1978 to the best popular scientific work making the areas of knowledge at Wageningen UR available to a broad public. The jury, consisting of four representatives from the fields of science and journalism, evaluated the material submitted by 13 contestants, including many works of a very high quality.
Winners in previous years were:
2006: Peter de Jaeger, freelance journalist
2002: TV programme “Noorderlicht” (VPRO) with the broadcast on “Genetic Gold”
1998: Peter Vermij, science journalist for Het Parool
1994: Radio programme “Vroege vogels” , VARA
1990: Legien Kromkamp, NCRV-programme “Op goede gronden”
1986: Marion de Boo, freelancer for Intermediair and for the Science & Education supplement for the NRC/Handelsblad.
1983: Dr. Jan Blom, for the Science and Society supplement for de Volkskrant
1980: Director H.J. van der Kolk and editor G. Beukema of the NOS TV programme “Oogst in Beeld”
1978: Alfred van Dijk, “Aardappelzaden worden niet ziek” in 19NU.
Photo: Jan Karel Mak (chair WUF, left) hands over the certificates to the winners of the Press Award 2010 Barend Hazeleger (centre) en Arend Jan Voortman (at right). Photo: Bart de Gouw.