Having your own webpage is back in style again. Isn’t it nice to curate your own content, instead of having some algorithm or social media platform do that for you?
Well, here is my digital home. Welcome.
What’s the point?
Maybe you want to find out more about me. Maybe you want to head-hunt me. Maybe you’re a stalker. Well, you won’t find my home address here.
Who is Sonya Angelica Diehn?
A little bit about me: I care a lot about animals and the environment — and have always wanted to make the world a better place. I have a real love of languages. After starting in citizen journalism in the 90s, I became a professional journalist. As a digital native, I’ve done reporting for online, also video and audio production.
The past decade or so of my career have been centered on work as a senior editor and team leader. I effectively foster young talent, and especially enjoy developing creative projects. It’s very important to me to make a difference and have a positive impact in my work. I get great satisfaction out of bringing people together around ambitious ideas and clear storytelling. Currently looking for my next professional challenge!
I was born and raised in the United States, but moved to Germany in 2009. In 2022, I moved with my small family to beautiful Mechelen, Belgium. I am a proud boy-mom and Maneblusser.
Recent work
In 2022, I joined POLITICO in Brussels as Deputy EU Editor.
For my first POLITICO byline, I looked at how Belgium has granted teens the right to vote in the European election.
In 2023, I switched into the role of Planning Editor at POLITICO.
Part of that job connected me to content — that included developing and editing the first-ever Brussels Survival Guide catering to the new class of EU lawmakers, to which I could also contribute a tongue-in-cheek take on how to stay out of trouble in the European Parliament.
I was also able to combine two of my greatest interests — politics and linguistics — into a story about a language trend set to reshape Belgium.
Ahead of the snap German election in February 2025, I wrote about how the infamous German bureaucracy held up ballots for expat voters (including my own!).
And as the Brussels bubble swung back into action in September 2025, I was very pleased to have worked across talented teams to shepherd through the back-to-school edition of the POLITICO newspaper.
Before working at POLITICO, I was a senior editor, team leader, and journalist at DW.
Having spent time in Venezuela in the past, I’ve followed what’s been happening there over the years. Joe Biden’s unfortunate policy to push back Venezuelan asylum-seekers at the U.S. border in late 2022 provided an opportunity to report on the topic.
As the party swept recent parliamentary elections in a country once known for its exceptional tolerance, I profiled the right-wing Sweden Democrats.
When I moved with my family to Flanders in Belgium, I became enchanted by the melodic chiming of carillon bells ringing through the air in our city of Mechelen. Wait, what’s a carillon? You can find out by listening to the radio report:
Past work
I held various roles over my decade-plus at DW, including team leader and radio producer.
While at DW, I able to publish my views on number of topics. You are welcome to read more about why I got riled up about the findings around the COVID vaccine impacting menstruation, or my take on ultra-rich dudes who blast themselves into space.
Many of my stories were also published in German, among other languages:
Wie die EU Zwangsarbeit bekämpfen will
Globalisierung: Ist der Zenit überschritten?
Deutschlands rückwärtsgewandtes Mutterbild
For a time, I was producing the radio show/podcast Living Planet. You can listen to this episode, for example, where our production team collaborated with another audio project to look at whether or not civilization would need to end in order to save the Earth.
I led the environment team at DW for about five years. Here is a small selection of some of the journalism I did during that time.
Video interview: California Governor Jerry Brown at COP23 in Bonn
Online version: California’s Jerry Brown on how to beat Trump on climate change
Opinion piece: Hambach Forest — just because it’s legal doesn’t make it right
One of the great joys I had as Environment Team Leader was bringing people together to develop and create interesting new formats. These included a series of self-experimenting stories under the #HowGreenAmI campaign.
I’ve also worked as a freelancer. This short documentary video Tourism in Cancún: Success or Disaster? was a part of the Km 0 compilation.