Journalist Bram Vermeulen stops after twenty years as a foreign correspondent. From January 1, he will fully focus on the TV program frontline, which he directs and presents for the VPRO. The decision means that Vermeulen is resigning from his work for the NOS. He continues to write stories for NRC.
Vermeulen started as a correspondent in the southern part of Africa and started working in Turkey in 2009. At the end of 2013, he returned to South Africa. “After twenty years as a correspondent, it is time for me to go home.”
Vermeulen has also been making programs for the VPRO for some years now. His documentary series In Turkey received an Erasmus Euro Media Award in 2011. In 2008 he was voted Journalist of the Year.
The 47-year-old Vermeulen emphasizes that although he will stop with his correspondentship, he will not travel. “I want to make long-lasting stories that take place far away, but that are inextricably linked with us. I want to show that we play a part in that.”
He points, among other things, to the migrant crisis on the Greek border and the extremist violence in northern Mozambique. That violence was fueled by western gas extraction in the region, says Vermeulen.
The motto of frontline is: telling forgotten stories that are no more than a footnote in the daily news. Vermeulen zooms in on people who live “against the front lines”. This does not only concern the consequences of armed conflicts, but also issues such as climate change and its impact on daily life.
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