Brussels-based correspondents still had it good in 2025 despite expulsions, a sacking for asking the ‘wrong’ question and other challenges, says foreign correspondents’ association API at a New Year’s reception reception held as a tribute to long-serving API secretary general, Hans de Bruijn, who passed away in November 2025.
“We still have a good thing going as journalists in Brussels,” API President Dafydd ab Iago said at the association’s New Year’s reception on 23 January. “Imagine the European Commission — like the White House — having a Media Offenders list, with the Chief Spokesperson naming and shaming journalists who have fallen foul of President Ursula von der Leyen. That’s the sad world colleagues in the US have fallen into.”
API also highlighted the dangers faced by journalists worldwide. In 2025, 129 journalists and media workers were killed according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Ten killings occurred in Europe — eight in Ukraine, one in Russia and one in Turkey. The association also recalled the car-bomb attack targeting RAI journalist Sigfrido Ranucci in Rome.
API — short for Association de la Presse Internationale — said Brussels-based correspondents nonetheless faced mounting challenges in 2025. These included the expulsion of two journalists and the confiscation of another journalist’s laptop. The association said it continued to push for greater transparency and access, opposing restrictions in the European Parliament and what it described as selective engagement by some EU commissioners and officials with favored journalists.
Around 450 of the 910 EU-accredited journalists are members of API. The association celebrated its 50th anniversary in July 2025.
The association also criticized the dismissal of its colleague Gabriele Nunziati in 2025 by an Italian news agency after he asked, at a European Commission press conference, whether Israel should pay for Gaza’s reconstruction, as Russia should for the destruction in Ukraine. The CPJ notes Israel as having killed almost 250 journalists since the Israel-Gaza war began in 2023.
Tribute to Hans
Foreign correspondents also paid tribute to API’s long-serving secretary general, Hans de Bruijn, who passed away in November 2025. “Hans was the backbone of our volunteer-driven association,” Mr ab Iago said. “As secretary general, he pushed us to keep defending correspondents’ rights and ability to report from Brussels. And during his career as correspondent, Hans chased scoops as the best of us, in Washington, Den Haag and Brussels.”
Former API president Michael Stabenow said Mr de Bruijn never raised his voice in association discussions, relying instead on “well-founded argument”. Isabelle Hoberg, of the Belgian prime minister’s chancellery and manager of the International Press Centre, said he had helped transform the art deco Résidence Palace into a hub for foreign correspondents.
API said it was honored to welcome Mr de Bruijn’s wife, Elianne, to the reception.
Photo Credit: ©EU, 2025. Photographer: Dati Bendo.