Episode 173 (10 Feb 2022): Robert Chesal is a journalist and university lecturer. He's been reporting for Dutch news media since the early 1990s, working in radio, print, television and online. Robert's won the Journalist of the Year award for investigative reporting in 2011. Since 2013 he's been teaching journalism at LUC and in the Masters program in Groningen.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertchesal/

https://twitter.com/RChesal

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/12/13/technology/china-propaganda-youtube-influencers.html

The China story (links from day 1, and day 2, when we did a follow up on China's influence operations and reported on the VU Amsterdam shutting down the human rights center's website)

https://nos.nl/artikel/2413702-china-financiert-onderzoek-naar-mensenrechten-aan-vu

https://nos.nl/artikel/2413806-waarom-wil-china-invloed-uitoefenen-op-nederlandse-academici

https://nos.nl/artikel/2414560-mensenrechtencentrum-vu-staakt-alle-activiteiten

The Guardian and Politico picked up the story:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/25/dutch-university-gives-up-chinese-funding-due-to-impartiality-concerns

https://www.politico.eu/article/dutch-university-amsterdam-scandal-taps-china-influence/

On the sex abuse in the church story, this was the very first scoop (the English version was archived on the Wayback Machine, luckily):

https://web.archive.org/web/20100301040953/http://www.nrc.nl/international/Features/article2493257.ece/Child_sex_abuse_in_Dutch_Catholic_Church_revealed

The last article we published together on the subject was in 2016, after the film Spotlight won 2 Oscars.

https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2016/03/19/destijds-moesten-ze-zwijgen-nu-weer-1602738-a697882

Rik Rutten's story in De Correspondent

https://decorrespondent.nl/6704/bijles-voor-eindexamens-is-booming-en-daarmee-de-onderwijsongelijkheid/930836737248-54a113a4