a short summary of what you could have read before, had you been able to read Dutch...
Margo Smit is currently ombudsman at Dutch public television NPO (all the journalistic output in the Dutch public broadcasting system). Previously, since August 1, 2015, she was part-time ombudsman for newscaster NOS and an independent investigative journalist and journalism teacher. Till August 2015, she was director of the Dutch-Flemish Association of Investigative Journalists VVOJ. She received her Masters degree in Communication (specialization journalism) from Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA. She briefly worked as a reporter at the Longview Daily News, and has since researched, written and produced documentaries in Dutch and English, both for Dutch public television and for international sales. Subjects were nuclear proliferation, enlargement of the European Union, counterfeiting of the euro, the banking industry, former Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the murder of publicist Theo van Gogh.
Smit freelanced as a researcher and/or reporter for several international publications and media outlets, such as TSR's Temps Présent (Switserland), Seven Network's Sunday Night (Australia) and ABC 'Four Corners' (Australia).
VVOJ in 2005 organized the third Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Amsterdam, and Smit has since contributed to GIJC's editions at Toronto (2007), Lillehammer (2008), Geneva (2010), Kiev (2011), Rio di Janeiro (2013), Lillehammer (2015) and Johannesburg (2017). She sat on the Global Shining Light Award jury (2010, 2017), the DIG Awards (2015, 2016, 2017, Documentary Inchiesti Giornalismi), the Daniel Pearl Award (2010, 2011, 2013), and the M.J. Brusseprijs (2013) .
In 2012, Smit lead a team of over 80 European journalists to compile the report 'Deterrence of fraud with EU-funds through investigative journalism in EU-27'. The report was written on request of the European Parliament's Budgettary Control Committee, with Smit as principal author. Highlights can be found here.
Smit is a board member of Journalismfund.eu, a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors IRE, vice chair person of the Global Investigative Journalism Network, and a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ICIJ. She was a delegate for Western Europe at the IWMF International Woman Media Leaders Conference in March 2011 and taught masterclasses in investigative journalism at the 34th IAWRT conference in Kuala Lumpur. Smit was a key note speaker at the 2014 ACFE European Fraud Conference in March 2014. In May 2014, she taught at online Universiteit van Nederland.
Between June and November 2014, Smit worked on the #LuxLeaks project by ICIJ, a collaborative effort of 80 journalists in 26 countries. The project won a Polk Award in business reporting, an award in business reporting from the New York Press Club, and was a nominee for the European Press Prize 2014 in the category ‘Innovation’.
Smit is a course module editor in investigative reporting (journalistic inquiry) at Open School of Journalism.
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