Nieuwsuur presenter Jeroen Wollaars is the winner of the Sonja Barend Award, the prize for the best television interview. Wollaars wins the prize for an interview with CDA party leader Wopke Hoekstra, in the election series of Nieuwsuur.
The prize, an initiative of the VARAgids, was featured in the TV program tonight Khalid & Sophie awarded by Sonja Barend herself. “You are the winner of the jury, but you are also my winner”, said Barend, who called the conversation with Hoekstra an “exceptionally good interview”. “You could clearly see from the conversation that it was so terribly well prepared. You knew everything, you had gone through everything, looked at all possibilities. That led to a very strict, but very relaxed conversation.”
The party leaders’ talks were indeed prepared down to the last detail, says Wollaars. “For example, colleague Nynke de Zoeten pretended to be Hoekstra. Like: if he says this, you have to say this. We had a long list of input that we’ve been working on for months.”
Watch the award-winning interview for yourself from March:
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The election broadcast with CDA party leader Wopke Hoekstra
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“A more than justified recognition”, says Nieuwsuur editor-in-chief Joost Oranje about the prize. “Jeroen has been an anchor of Nieuwsuur for three years now and has developed in an exemplary manner as a presenter and as an interviewer. Together with Mariëlle Tweebeeke, he made the interviews in our election series into something really special, also thanks to the great research that was behind them.”
Election Series
The interview with Hoekstra was part of the series of election broadcasts. With stories from voters, critical analyzes and interviews with party leaders, Nieuwsuur tried to provide as complete a picture as possible of the political landscape on the way to the elections to the House of Representatives. click here for all reports, articles and leader discussions.
Last year won program maker and journalist Coen Verbraak won the Sonja Barend Award. He was awarded for a conversation he had with Dutchbat veteran Liesbeth Beukeboom in the series Srebrenica – the impotent mission of Dutchbat.
Kefa Allush, Eva Jinek and Humberto Tan, among others, have previously won the prize. Mariëlle Tweebeeke and Twan Huys won him in 2011 and 2012, both as presenters of news hour.
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