Dutch Journalism Festival

Since 2006, the Italian city of Perugia has been the setting for a special event: the International Journalism Festival. Journalists, media scholars, news agencies, and journalism students from all over the world flock to the festival. Over the course of five days, hundreds of speakers address topics such as investigative journalism, the rise of AI, local news, and digitization.

Given the global success of the International Journalism Festival, a Dutch version was bound to follow. The Huis voor de Journalistiek Foundation, established in 2024 with the aim of strengthening collaboration within Dutch journalism, took the initiative to launch the Dutch Journalism Festival. The first edition will take place on September 12 and 13, 2025, in downtown Deventer.

During the festival, workshops, panel discussions, and lectures will be held at various locations throughout the city. Journalists from all over the Netherlands can easily connect with one another to discuss all the issues currently facing journalism. The festival also actively seeks to engage with interested parties outside the journalism community, as it aims to be a place where the press can engage in dialogue with its audience.

The Democracy and Media Foundation supports this initiative because the Dutch Journalism Festival can contribute to knowledge sharing and building connections not only among journalists, but also between journalism and news consumers. At a festival like this, there is ample opportunity to reflect on the challenges and opportunities of contemporary journalism, whereas there is typically less time for this in newsrooms.