Riki Janssen receives UM Medallion of Honour

UM's Executive Board honored Riki Janssen because under her leadership the Observant became a fixture in our academic community. As editor-in-chief, she and the editorial staff allowed the newspaper to undergo a number of important transformations. For example, the bilingual edition became the standard format, much work was put into a professional layout of the paper, digital versions appeared, and editorial policy was constantly tested by a critical Editorial Board and ditto Foundation Board.

Riki received the honorary medal from the vice-chairman of the Executive Board Jan-Tjitte Meindersma. "You succeeded in making the newspaper more attractive by combining more in-depth articles with human-interest sections and fine pieces by a rich variety of columnists.

All these transformations do not take away from the fact that under your leadership the Observant has also continued to do what a newspaper should do: cover meetings of university and faculty councils, follow administrators critically and showcase important news from UM's education and research field.

You and your editors did that in an outstanding way, and in doing so you made a substantial contribution to UM's identity and reputation.

Even in periods of heavy pressure - such as the cyber hack, the corona pandemic, budget cuts, political discussions regarding language policy and other (geopolitical) crises - you reported with a neutral and critical eye."