Jean-Marie "Jan" Becaus (born 18 July 1948 in

Ghent Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium, province ...

) is a Flemish politician and former journalist. He is best known for having been a reporter and news anchor for the Flemish public broadcaster VRT, a job he held for 28 years. In 2014 he became a co-opted senator for the

New Flemish Alliance The New Flemish Alliance ( ; N-VA) is a Flemish Movement, Flemish nationalist, Conservatism, conservative Political parties in Belgium, political party in Belgium. The party was established in 2001 by the right-leaning faction of the centrist-na ...

Early life and education

Becaus grew up in Muide, the port district of Ghent, where his family ran a butchers' shop; he moved with his family to

Heusden Heusden () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the south of the Netherlands. It is located between the towns of Waalwijk and 's-Hertogenbosch. The municipality of Heusden, including Herpt, Heesbeen, Hedikhuizen, Do ...

in 1963. In 1971 Becaus qualified as a language teacher, a job he held until 1984.

Career

Becaus became a journalist at the VRT (then known as the BRT) in 1984; a year later, in 1985, he became a regular anchor of the news programme '' Het Journaal''. For many years, Becaus presented the late night news; however, in 2012 he moved to the afternoon and evening bulletins, due to a change in format of the late news. In addition to presenting the news, Becaus was also the VRT's royal correspondent, reporting on the

Belgian monarchy The monarchy of Belgium is the constitutional and hereditary institution of the monarchical head of state of the Kingdom of Belgium. As a popular monarchy, the Belgian monarch uses the title king/queen of the Belgians and serves as the co ...

; in this capacity he made a documentary about

Queen Paola Paola Margherita Maria-Antonia Consiglia dei Principi Ruffo di Calabria (born 11 September 1937) is a member of the Belgian royal family who was List of Belgian royal consorts, Queen of the Belgians during the reign of her husband, Albert II of ...

, whom he also briefly taught

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

. He also regularly appeared as a reporter and commentator on stories relating to the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. Becaus presented his final broadcast on 31 July 2013, bringing to an end a career of almost thirty years as a journalist. Within Flanders, Becaus is well known for his correct pronunciation of foreign languages, especially English; for this reason, he became very popular on social media in his final years as a news presenter. In 2014, Becaus was

co-opted Co-option, also known as co-optation and sometimes spelt cooption or cooptation, is a term with three common meanings. It may refer to: 1) The process of adding members to an elite group at the discretion of members of the body, usually to manag ...

as a

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

for the

. Some press commentators have referred to him as a "white rabbit" ( wit konijn).

Personal life

Becaus is married, has no children and lives in

Sint-Martens-Latem Sint-Martens-Latem () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of East Flanders, in Belgium. The municipality comprises the towns of Deurle and Sint-Martens-Latem proper. In 2021, Sint-Martens-Latem had a total population of 8,285. The ...

, near Ghent.

References

1948 births Living people 20th-century Belgian journalists Male journalists Belgian television journalists Flemish journalists New Flemish Alliance politicians Members of the Senate (Belgium) 21st-century Belgian journalists Belgian senators of the 56th legislature {{Belgium-tv-stub