The European Broadcasting Union has appointed journalist and news editor, Kate de Pury, as head of EBU Moscow. She will start in September 2021, succeeding Dirk Verhulst, who retired on July 15, 2021.
De Pury’s broadcast news career has been dominated by roles at Associated Press and Reuters in Russia. She has also worked as a journalist in Chechnya, Ukraine, Georgia and the Commonwealth of Independent States since the end of the Soviet Union. As Moscow bureau chief for AP from 2015–2019, she oversaw a multimedia team and liaised regularly with local and foreign news organizations in Russia and the wider region.
De Pury is a member of the Rory Peck Trust advisory committee, which supports freelance journalists worldwide. She has also designed and launched a new online MA in Digital Journalism at Falmouth University in the United Kingdom.
“I’m delighted to join the EBU, an organization in the heart of Europe working to support international public service media,” said De Pury. “Russia is a fantastic and very important global story — but it’s often not an easy story – and it‘s crucial that we support the excellent journalism being done by our Members there. I’ve spent many years living and working in Moscow and I’ve seen recent history unfold, from the crazy 90s euphoria to the much more complex issues facing Russia in the 21st century. I hope that my long and deep experience in building relationships with Russian partners across government and all parts of the media will help me deliver real impact in this new role,” she commented.
Dirk Verhulst managed the EBU Moscow office from 1991 to 2021. In this role, he was a guiding force in delivering key breaking news stories and interpreting issues from across the region, including the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the first election of President Putin in 2000 and the Beslan school siege in 2004.
