Luuk Sengers

Luuk is an independent investigative journalist, trainer and lecturer. Together with Mark Lee Hunter he established Story-Based Inquiry Associates, an international research and training unit for investigative journalism (www.storybasedinquiry.com). In 2009 they published an Unesco manual “Story-Based Inquiry: A Manual for Investigative Journalists”. Translated in five languages and quoted on hundreds of websites it became the most widespread work on investigative journalism to date. Followed in 2012 by “The Hidden Scenario: Plotting and Outlining Investigative Stories” and in 2013 “The Story Tells the Facts. Structuring and Composing Investigative Narratives”, both the latter with support of by the Centre for Investigative Journalism at London City University. For the last couple of years Luuk has teached investigation techniques to reporters in newsrooms and at many international conferences and summer schools. Before he became a lecturer, Luuk worked sixteen years as a full-time economy reporter at national newspapers and magazines in The Netherlands. Among others at the daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad, business magazine Quote and the weekly Intermediair. He wrote investigative pieces about train accidents, hormone disrupting chemicals in drinking water, unsafe baby food, wage differences, unfairness in the tax system, diminishing social security and rising poverty. In 2009 Luuk wrote a handbook (in Dutch) about investigative reporting: “Onderzoeksjournalistiek. Researchproces van idee tot verhaal” (Lannoo Campus 2009). Currently he works at Thomas More Hogeschool in Mechelen (Belgium) where he teaches research skills to journalism students. He also teaches part-time at other journalism schools and universities in Europe and Africa. Luuk is on the board of the Dutch-Flemish association of investigative journalists (VVOJ) and is a member of the Global Investigative Journalism Network. In between classes, he writes stories about (international) environmental issues.