Steven Vanden Bussche (1979) is a Belgian investigative journalist.

Steven Vanden Bussche has been a journalist since 2005. He first worked in regional journalism for the public broadcaster and a newspaper and then as a correspondent for the Belga News Agency. Since 2017, he has worked full-time for the Belgian platform for investigative journalism Apache. Steven is part of the Urban Journalism Network that won the European Press Prize in 2022.

Info

Name
Steven Vanden Bussche
Title
Journalist
Expertise
Investigative journalism
Land
Belgium
Stad
Merelbeke
Twitter
Website

Supported projects

The concealed pfas problem

  • Healthcare
  • Industry
  • Environment

Scientific publications, leaked company data and government data suggest that industry is doing everything possible to deliberately put up a fog curtain around these ultra short PFAS.

Credits: Simon Clément

The new Nederbelg

  • Migration
  • Cities

ESSEN/HOOGSTRATEN/PUTTE - Belgian real estate agents are seeing more and more Dutch people moving across the border, in a desperate attempt to find an affordable house in the border region. What does that do to life in a border region. Apache and OC Spit traveled from Essen across Hoogstraten to Putte and spoke with owners.

The Port Project

ANTWERPEN/ROTTERDAM - The social damage of air pollution caused by the (petro)chemical sector in the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam runs into billions of euros. This is according to an investigation by Apache and Follow The Money based on official figures on emissions and transfer of pollutants from large industrial facilities.

Who are the beneficiaries of the Flemish cabinets?

  • Politics

BRUSSELS - Cabinets of Flemish ministers can make certain limited expenditures under the radar. But who are the beneficiaries?

Great Belgian hunger for Zeeland's farmland

  • Agriculture

ZEELAND - To whom does the Dutch province of Zeeland belong? Partly to Belgians, who own up to a fifth of the agricultural land in the southernmost part of the province. The Dutch research collective Spit and the Belgian platform Apache went in search of the large landowners and answered the question: why are they active there?

Prostitution premises

  • Data journalism
  • Exploitation

BRUSSELS - As of Wednesday (9 June 2021), the rules for sex work are normalising. After months of vacancy, activity in the zones of tolerance for window prostitution is getting back on track. In the past, sex workers and bar owners have been much investigated, but the property owners are a blind spot. Who are those men and women who buy premises to install display windows where sex workers attract customers? Which companies specialise in real estate for the sex industry and do they have links to foreign countries?

Who owns Flanders?

BRUSSELS - In the almost built-up Flanders (northern region of Belgium), land is a precious commodity. Who are the large landowners who own hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of hectares of land in Flanders? Who are the real estate investors who own whole streets in cities or have their eye on certain neighbourhoods? Why do they do it? What is the return?

30 million chickens, none to be seen

  • Environment
  • Agriculture

BRAKEN - The Belgian city Braken on the Dutch border, has 1.2 million chickens among its inhabitants. They divide the village: inhabitants are tired of the smell, fine dust and heavy transport in their village. In order to objectify the discussion, the local government ordered an air quality study.