Former TV reporter Ruud ElmendorpFormer TV reporter Ruud Elmendorp is using a blog to document his work on the Indonesian island of Banda Aceh, one of the areas worst affected by December's tsunami.

The blog is primarily to showcase Mr Elmendorp's work as a broadcast reporter working for CNN, Reuters' Africa Journal and the Dutch broadcast channels.

"When the small digital broadcast cameras entered the market, I became interested in doing the whole production by myself: research, production, shooting, script writing, editing, and publishing," said Mr Elmendorp.

He has also produced features for online broadcasters and wants to promote his work to the significant Dutch audience now watching TV online. An estimated 40 per cent of the country's population watch TV online using on-demand services.

"It's great to be part of a new development and try to push it forward," he told dotJournalism.

"With ever-increasing connection speeds, this might be the future of television as a whole."

Mr Elmendorp moved from his native Holland to Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, in 2002. He now reports mostly from conflict zones and recently covered the epidemic of the Marburg virus in Angola, civil war in the Sudan and the impact of the tsunami on coastal areas of Somalia.

Reporting from the Indonesian province of Banda Aceh this week, Mr Elmendorp found a large ship used to generate electricity that had been carried two and a half miles inland. He also visited a mass grave near the airport where 130,000 people are buried, and spoke to survivors from coastal villages.

"People are slowly coming back. Mostly to claim their property, because thieves are preying on the plots," wrote Mr Elmendorp on his blog.

"Spoke to a man today. He was just sitting on his property, in front of a makeshift hut. 'I lost my wife in the tsunami, and I still haven't found my children. I come here to relax.' "

More news from dotJournalism:
Google unveils video search
Sea change for citizen news
Bloggers thrown lifeline
Video mobile mag launched
Web TV from the front line
Reuters brings war to consumers

Free daily newsletter

If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).