Dutch crime reporter dies after being shot in Amsterdam attack

One of the best-known crime reporters in the Netherlands who was shot in an attack in Amsterdam earlier this month has died.

Peter R de Vries, who reported on the Dutch underworld, was shot on July 6 after appearing on a current affairs show.

RTL, the television network Mr de Vries regularly worked for, cited a family statement as saying: “Peter fought to the end, but was unable to win the battle.”

It continued: “We are unbelievably proud of him and at the same time inconsolable.”

Two suspects – a 21-year-old Dutch man and a 35-year-old Polish man living in the Netherlands – have been arrested in connection with the shooting.

They were detained not long after Mr de Vries was wounded.

King Willem Alexander of the Netherlands last week called the shooting of Mr de Vries “an attack on

journalism, the cornerstone of our

constitutional state and therefore also an attack on the rule of law”.

The incident also struck a chord elsewhere

in Europe, where such events are rare and where the killings of journalists in Slovakia and Malta in recent years have raised concerns about reporters’ safety in developed, democratic societies.

“We might disagree with a lot we see in our media, but we have to agree that journalists investigating potential abuses of power are not a threat but an asset to our democracies and our societies,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last week.

Peter R de Vries did not recover from his wounds.