Hendrik Jan (Hein) Rutten meergenaamd Roethof (23 November 1921, in

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

– 15 January 1996, in Utrecht) was a Dutch journalist and politician. He completed his secondary education at the Utrecht HBS. Roethof read Law of the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...

from 1940 to 1945, from which he received his PhD in 1951. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he moved to the Dutch East Indies, where he was a civil servant from October 1945 to March 1946. He then worked for two years at the Government Information Service in Batavia. In 1948 he turned to journalism and was an assistant

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

of a newspaper for half a year. He then returned to the Netherlands to work at Dutch newspaper ''

Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant ''NRC'', previously called ' (), is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by Mediahuis NRC. It is widely regarded as a newspaper of record in the country. History was first published on 1 October 1970 after a merger of the Amst ...

''. From 1951 to 1958 he was editor for Dutch news and from 1964 parliamentary editor. Beside his work he was chairman of JOVD, the youth section of Dutch conservative-liberal party VVD. Because of his progressive political ideas he broke away from the VVD and in 1964 he joined the

social-democratic Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, socia ...

PvdA. From February 1964 Roethof worked at the

Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (; BZ) is the Netherlands' ministry responsible for foreign relations, foreign policy, international development, international trade, diaspora and matters dealing with the European Union, NATO and the Benelux Un ...

, until he was elected as a PvdA MP in the

House of Representatives of the Netherlands The House of Representatives ( , literally "Second Chamber of the States General", or simply ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliament of the Netherlands, the States General of the Netherlands, States General, the other one ...

in 1969. He would remain an MP until 1989, with a break from 1982 to 1986. He was specialised in matters of law, law enforcement and media. He also worked on international law, workers' rights to strike and the legal position of civil servants.

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People's Party for Freedom and Democracy politicians Labour Party (Netherlands) politicians Dutch civil servants Dutch humanists Utrecht University alumni Politicians from Utrecht (city) 1921 births 1996 deaths 20th-century Dutch journalists Dutch people of the Dutch East Indies Dutch MPs 1967–1971 {{Netherlands-VVD-politician-stub