Delta again has a chance of being awarded the prestigious Tegel – which literally means tile – award. Delta’s Editor in Chief, Saskia Bonger, is one of the nominees for the most important award in journalism in the Netherlands for her investigative article about the Innovation & Impact Centre at TU Delft.
Saskia Bonger. (Photo: Sam Rentmeester)
Another nomination for Delta’s Editor in Chief, Saskia Bonger. This time she was nominated for a Tegel (in Dutch) for her investigative article about the duty of confidentiality at the Innovation & Impact Centre (I&IC) at TU Delft in the ‘Regional/Local’ category. The annual prestigious prize is awarded to the creators of the best journalistic products of the previous year. It is considered the country’s most important recognition for journalism.
To Bonger, the nomination is a huge honour. “The support and recognition of peers means a lot. Not only for me personally, but it also helps strengthen Delta’s position. The nomination underlines the value of journalism in higher education.”
In the nominated article, Bonger showed how the duty of confidentiality imposed on I&IC employees about the poor performance of the then Director created confusion and frustration. Employees felt aggrieved and this led to a breakdown of trust in the Rector Magnificus. No more than a few weeks before publication, the Inspectorate of Education had concluded that TU Delft had neglected its duty of care for its staff.
Censorship
The censorship that followed generated worries at TU Delft for a long time. Under judicial pressure, TU Delft ordered Delta to remove the investigative article. It only appeared online again two months later.
This is not the first time that the piece about the I&IC won Bonger a nomination. In February she was shortlisted for the ‘Journalist van het jaar’ (journalist of the year) title and in June of last year she was awarded a Kring Award for the best background article in higher education media. The jury judged that the article ‘demonstrated very clearly the importance of having an independent medium in university communities that takes on the role of watchdog’.
Apart from Bonger’s article, two other publications (in Dutch) are competing for the ‘Regional/Local’ Tegel Award. Leo van Raaij wrote a series of articles on the ‘Theatertapes’ for the Tubantia newspaper in the province of Twente. They uncovered how the municipal council of the town of Almelo took decisions about the Stadstheater (town theatre) there. The other nominees were Friso Bos, Oscar Spaans and Bart Vuijk (Noord-Hollands Dagblad, north Holland daily newspaper). They revealed that the municipality of Beverwijk was fixing information about environmental pollution.
Second Tegel nomination
For Delta, this is the second Tegel nomination in five years. In 2022, the honour went to editors Annebelle de Bruin and Tomas van Dijk. They discovered that at least 29 Chinese PhD candidates and guest researchers were accumulating research experience at TU Delft, some of which could be used for military purposes.
Whether Bonger wins the award will be made on Monday evening, 28 April. The Tegels will be awarded in the Koninklijke Schouwburg theatre in The Hague.
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