Pieter Stockmans is following the global policies of the European Union, European refugee policy, developments in Central Europe, and the region to the east of the EU, with a particular focus on democracy and human rights.
From 2010 to 2015, Pieter worked as a freelance investigative journalist. He traveled through North Africa and the Middle East and published in MO* Magazine, Knack, De Standaard, Middle East Eye, and Al Jazeera English. He conducted field research on Israel’s colonization of Palestine, the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, radicalization, and terrorism. He was embedded among Syrian refugees in the countries neighboring Syria and along their route to Europe, with the Kurds in Syria and Iraq, with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and with Islamists and jihadists in Jordan and Tunisia.
Together with VRT journalist Majd Khalifeh, he launched the journalistic project Between Freedom and Happiness. With Islamic studies scholar Montasser AlDe’emeh, he co-authored 'De Jihadkaravaan' (Lannoo, 2015).
Pieter holds degrees in Law and International Relations from KU Leuven. He later completed a postgraduate program in International Investigative Journalism in Mechelen. In addition to his work for MO Magazine, he gives lectures, is an avid cyclist, and occasionally writes for the cycling magazine Grinta!
