Belgium: press freedom under threat?
The Belgian judiciary has recently banned a number of media reports in response to complaints from the politicians mentioned in them. Commentators see the lawsuits against journalists, known as SLAPP lawsuits, as a threat to freedom of expression and freedom of the press in Belgium.
Right to information takes precedence
This is a dangerous trend, La Libre Belgique complains:
“This judicialisation is all the more dangerous because it is taking place under the guise of protecting privacy or commercial practices. Even if these arguments are legitimate in certain circumstances, they must never be used to silence revelations that are in the public interest. Preventive censorship, prohibited by Article 25 of the Belgian Constitution, is resurfacing in ever more insidious forms, revealing a skewed balance of power between the right to information and private or political interests. In a democracy, however, there should never be any doubt that the former takes precedence.”
No real freedom of expression without facts
Bertrand Henne defends the journalistic profession on RTBF, saying that citizens believe they have a false sense of freedom:
“The accumulation [of interference in the media] is alarming. It represents an unprecedented encroachment on the right to information in this country. And if the public is rather indifferent to this process, it is undoubtedly due to a loss of trust in the press, but also, I believe, to the fact that we are experiencing a greater freedom of expression as individuals. Never before have we been able to express our opinions so easily – but therein lies the paradox of our time: opinions are free and valued, but the facts that journalists try to establish are less and less so. But what is total freedom of expression worth without the facts?”