Journalist and former Middle East correspondent Thomas Loudon died aged 56 after being diagnosed last year with neuroendocrine tumours, a slow-growing form of cancer. His former employer NOS announced his death.

Loudon became the first Dutch video journalist to settle in Iran after the Islamic Revolution in 2001. He later worked as a Middle East correspondent from Cairo and Jordan, reporting on Iran, Afghanistan, northern Iraq and the Iraq war. After returning to the Netherlands in 2007, he taught journalism, supported journalists in countries where press freedom was under pressure, and worked as a documentary maker.