Tjitske Lingsma

(Tilburg, 1960) won the Dick Scherpenzeel prize in 2008 with Het Verdriet van Ambon. Een geschiedenis van de Molukken (The sorrow of Ambon. A history of the Moluccas). The jury decided it had seldom seen ‘such a sound example of travel journalism giving meaning. In her acceptance speech Lingsma criticised the media, who are less and less interested in foreign journalism. Later her book was published in English. After having graduated in Dutch language and literature and communication studies Lingsma first worked with Inter Press Sevice and NPS radio. In 1999 she left for Asia to report on the referendum in East Timor and the war on the Moluccas for among others Amnesty International, the Dutch daily paper AD, Elsevier and CNN. From 2001 to 2002 she worked as a public relations official on the constituent assembly of East Timor. In addition to working as a freelance journalist for the BBC, VPRO and the Dutch weekly Vrij Nederland, she now studies criminology at the Free University in Amsterdam.