Stephanie "Step" Vaessen (born 11 February 1965) is a Dutch broadcast

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, currently working as a Berlin correspondent for Al Jazeera English.

Early life

Vaessen is of

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

origin and was born in

Simpelveld Simpelveld (; li, Zumpelveld ) is a municipality and a town in the southeastern Netherlands. It is part of the municipal cooperative unit Parkstad Limburg. Simpelveld is part of the ''Mergelland'', named after the presence of chalk (mergel), h ...

in the province of Limburg, in 1965. She graduated in psychology in

Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

and then took a postgraduate course in journalism in

Tilburg Tilburg () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern province of North Brabant. With a population of 222,601 (1 July 2021), it is the second-largest city or municipality in North Brabant after Eindhoven and the seventh-lar ...

. During her student years, she was involved in the

squatter movement, and worked on the squatter radio-station Radio Rataplan.

Career

;Nederlandse Omroep Stichtin In 1994, she began working with the

Nederlandse Omroep Stichting The Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (; NOS ; English: Dutch Broadcasting Foundation) is one of the broadcasting organisations making up the Netherlands Public Broadcasting system. It has a special statutory obligation to make news and sports progra ...

(NOS) news department. In 1996 she became the NOS Southeast Asia correspondent, based in Jakarta. ;''Al Jazeera'' Vaessen moved to Al Jazeera English in 2006, when it was founded. She was based in Jakarta as the station's correspondent for

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. ;Guest appearances On Sunday, August 7, 2011, she was the third guest for the 2011 season on the television programme ''Zomergasten'' on the Dutch channel

VPRO The VPRO (stylized vpro; originally an acronym for , ) is a Dutch public broadcaster, which forms a part of the Dutch public broadcasting system. Founded in 1926 as a liberal Protestant broadcasting organization, it gradually became more so ...

. On 20 June 2012, she was the speaker for the Arondéus Lecture, to discuss the theme of intolerance in the Netherlands and attempts by politicians to limit free speech.

Publications

* ''Jihad met sambal'', August 2011 (Prometheus : Amsterdam).

External links

Profile of Step Vaessen on the website NOS Journaal
in the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music ...

De wandeling met Step Vaessen
in the

Profile of Step Vaessen on the Al Jazeera English website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaessen, Step 1965 births Living people Dutch expatriates in Germany Dutch expatriates in Indonesia Dutch expatriates in Russia Dutch journalists Dutch women journalists People from Simpelveld Radboud University Nijmegen alumni 20th-century squatters