Jan Keulen (1950) worked twenty years as a correspondent for de Volkskrant and other Dutch media. He was based in respectively Madrid, Beirut, Cairo, Mexico City and Amman. Keulen received the Dutch journalism award (NDP-prijs) in 1984 for reporting on the Lebanese war.
From 1998-2004 he was teaching journalism at the Rijks Universiteit Groningen. Keulen was involved in mid-career training courses for journalists of different newspapers in the Netherlands and the Middle East. From 2004 until 2011 Keulen was involved with Free Voice, now Free Press Unlimited (https://www.freepressunlimited.org/en). He co-founded and coordinated the “Investing in the Future” program for journalists and media lawyers in Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Bahrain and Yemen. The program offered Train the Trainers for journalists, courses on civil society reporting, new media training and legal protection for journalists.
In 2011-2013 Keulen was general director of the Doha Centre for Media Freedom, a press freedom organization based in Qatar (www.dc4mf.org)
Since 2014 Keulen is working again as a journalist and as a consultant. He contributes to Alazeera.com, http://www.middleeasteye.net and to Dutch media. His consultancy is mainly in the field of media development and journalism training. Keulen’s clients include Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ, Jordan), A Sawt al Hurr (ASAH, Egypt), Free Press Unlimited, HIVOS, Thomson Foundation and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.
Jan Keulen was director of The Rights Forum (www.rightsforum.org) from 2016-2019
Jan Keulen wrote several journalistic books, all on the Middle East or Latin America:
Standplaats Beiroet, 1984, Amsterdam (about the Lebanese civil war)
Mexico, 1989, Amsterdam (history, society, politics, culture)
Guatemala, 1994, Amsterdam (history, society, politics, culture)
Libanon, 1996, Amsterdam (history, society, politics, culture)
De vrede die niet kwam, 1998, Amsterdam (about the peace process in the Middle East). I wrote this book with dr. Nikolaos (Koos) van Dam. You can find a pdf here: 19980301nvdambook01nl
Weg van God, Iran twintig jaar na de revolutie, 1999, Amsterdam (about Iran under president Khatami)
Islam, de woede en het Westen, 2001, Amsterdam (about 9-11 with dr. Paul Aarts)
Focus on Media Freedom 