Leonard Ornstein

Leonard Ornstein is a political journalist. After he graduated in Sociology, Leonard Ornstein started his professional career as an economic journalist at the regional newspaper Het Parool. Currently he works for the television news magazine 'Netwerk' (NCRV) and writes for De Volkskrant newspaper and theVrij Nederland news magazine. He co-authored a number of books on the PvdA (socialist political party), former EC-commissioner Frits Bolkestein and the Middle East. After he was awarded the Anne Vondeling Prize for political journalism, Ornstein focussed specifically on the international political arena.

The last few years, Ornstein has conducted intriging television interviews for the 'Netwerk' news show, with world leaders such as Vladimir Putin (Russia), Dominique de Villepin (France), Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Turkey), Pervez Musharraf (Pakistan), Hans Blix (Swedish top diplomate), Ehud Barak (Israel) and Madeleine Albright (USA). Not long ago he interviewed former UN Secretarty-general Kofi Annan for 'Nova-tv'.

Independent interviewer Leonard Ornstein prefers the foil to the sword. In his opinion, interviewees ought to be respected at all times. Being a no-nonsense guy, charming, honest, sharp and to the point, Ornstein will use these qualities to tenaciously stimulate the debate. Humour and irony go along with that.

Recently Leonard Ornstein has led many prestigious debates and given lectures on various political, social and topical issues.