Folkert Jensma

Folkert Jensma (2017)

Folkert Jensma (* 1957 in Naaldwijk) is a Dutch journalist . From 1996 to 2006 he was editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad .

Life

Jensma studied for one year as an exchange student at the State University of New York in Albany in 1976, and in 1977 he began studying law (civil law) at the University of Leiden . In 1980 he also became editor of "Mare", the university's weekly newspaper. Jensma completed his studies in 1983 with a thesis on the droit de réponse (right of reply) and initially worked as a freelancer, and since 1984 as a domestic editor for the NRC Handelsblad . In the following years he was a reporter, editor in the political department, correspondent in Brussels and head of the Saturday supplement. In August 1996, Jensma was appointed editor-in-chief to succeed Ben Knapen .

A year before he started, the NRC Handelsblad was the pioneer in the field of national newspapers in the Netherlands in terms of Internet presence, and he was now responsible for its further development. Other important actions under his aegis were the launch of the "M" magazine in September 1998 (has been published monthly since March 2000) and the founding of the sister newspaper nrc.next , which, unlike the NRC Handelsblad, has been published exclusively on weekdays and in the morning since March 2006 . It is designed for a younger and educated readership who would otherwise no longer regularly access a daily newspaper. This was a reaction to the change in times initiated by the Internet and the introduction of the Dutch offshoot of the free newspaper Metro in September 1999 ; Both events have reduced the number of copies of the NRC Handelsblad since the turn of the millennium.

In 2006, the American author Bruce Bawer , who lived temporarily in the Netherlands, accused Jensma in his book "While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within" of complicity in the violent death of Pim Fortuyn , since Jensma in Regarding a possible election victory Fortuyn demonized him. Interestingly enough, the Dutch edition of the book was published by Meulenhoff , which belongs to the De Persgroep Nederland publishing group , which publishes the NRC Handelsblad . In September of that year Jensma resigned as editor-in-chief, but gave only personal reasons, after 10 years it was simply time to turn to something new. Jensma stayed on as the newspaper's legal commentator and continues to write articles for the NRC Handelsblad and its nrc.next offshoot . His successor was Birgit Donker .

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1. ↑ Moord op Fortuyn achtervolgt NRC.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: De Journalist. June 2, 2006 (Dutch)  

Web links

• Interview with Jensma in the Mare newspaper of the University of Leiden, where he was previously an editor (Dutch)