Hendrik Jan (Hein) Rutten meergenaamd Roethof (23 November 1921, in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

– 15 January 1996, in Utrecht) was a Dutch journalist and politician. He completed his secondary education at the Utrecht HBS. Roethof read Law of the Dutch East Indies at

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

from 1940 to 1945, from which he received his PhD in 1951. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

he moved to the Dutch East Indies, where he was a civil servant from October 1945 to March 1946. He then worked for two years at the Government Information Service in

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

. In 1948 he turned to journalism and was an assistant

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of a newspaper for half a year. He then returned to the Netherlands to work at Dutch newspaper ''

Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant ''NRC'', previously called ''NRC Handelsblad'' (), is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. It is generally accepted as a newspaper of record in the Netherlands. History ''NRC Handelsblad'' was first published on ...

''. From 1951 to 1958 he was editor for Dutch news and from 1964 parliamentary editor. Beside his work he was chairman of JOVD, the youth section of Dutch conservative-liberal party

VVD The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( nl, Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie ; VVD) is a Conservative liberalism, conservative-liberalRudy Andeweg, Andeweg, R. and G. Irwin ''Politics and Governance in the Netherlands'', Basingsto ...

. Because of his progressive political ideas he broke away from the VVD and in 1964 he joined the social-democratic PvdA. From February 1964 Roethof worked at the

Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( nl, link=no, Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken; BZ) is the Ministries of the Netherlands, Netherlands' ministry responsible for foreign relations of the Netherlands, foreign relations, foreign policy, internation ...

, until he was elected as a PvdA MP in the

House of Representatives of the Netherlands The House of Representatives (, pronounced ; commonly referred to as the ', literally "Second Chamber of the States General") is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of the Netherlands, the States General, the other one being the Senate ...

in 1969. He would remain an MP until 1989, with a break from 1982 to 1986. He was specialised in matters of law, law enforcement and media. He also worked on international law, workers' rights to strike and the legal position of civil servants.

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Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) People's Party for Freedom and Democracy politicians Labour Party (Netherlands) politicians Dutch civil servants Dutch humanists Utrecht University alumni Politicians from Utrecht (city) 1921 births 1996 deaths 20th-century Dutch journalists Dutch people of the Dutch East Indies {{Netherlands-VVD-politician-stub