As you might know, the PS mayor of Molenbeek, Catherine Moureaux, has been on burn-out leave for a year since winning her re-election.
The BX1 article is pure propaganda and reads like a copy-paste of a politician’s press release:
The mayor also wanted to thank all those who have shown her their support over the past few months through “messages and gestures of solidarity, and kindness which have meant a great deal to me during my recovery,” she stressed.
Ms. Moureaux finally clarified that she will return “with determination to continue the work undertaken in service of the people of Molenbeek”.
The Bruzz articleon the other hand, is a proper work of journalism, giving context to the situation as well as voice to the opposition.
Last month, Brussels Minister of Local Government Bernard Clerfayt (Défi) stated in parliament that there is currently no legal basis for pushing Moureaux aside as mayor.
The Molenbeek opposition is becoming increasingly vocal in its support for Moureaux, as can be seen from reactions to BRUZZ.
"The mayor already declared last summer that she was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel," notes Gloria Garcia Fernandez (MR). "Meanwhile, her recovery process continues to drag on, and there’s a complete lack of self-criticism. Yet, much has changed in Molenbeek in over a year, and rarely for the better," she says.
I mostly wanted to share this because I’m shocked by the state of the media in Belgium, which seems to me extremely obsequious and generous to politicians (i.e. propaganda). I am neither a Walloon nor Flemish, so I’m somewhat neutral – but it’s terrible to see this situation play out repeatedly, especially in Francophone media, and especially BX1. At every public event I’ve been to which attempts to pressure the Brussels region to create a government, there are mostly Flemish intellectuals and very few Francophones, and no doubt the media environment plays a big role on this.
Belgian institutions keep reaching out to English-speaking media like The Guardian to express their frustration with the political situation, desperate for some new Roger Casement muckracker to come spread the word to the free world to help get it sorted: CHANNEL, road safety groups…
Is there any work or known group which monitors this sort of closeness between politicians and media in Belgium?
https://i.redd.it/rm9yyxf8rmbg1.jpeg
Posted by aimockup
12 Comments
I suspect that the first source of the issue is a lack of means more than anything. The article from BX1 sound more like something done fast just based on the press release.
The French speaking Belgian media sector outside of RTL and RTBF is probably slowly dying. I don’t often read the written press often and when I do, I find that most articles are badly written. I suspect that it mainly survive because of the local news.
As for the public event. I suspect that many French speaker are simple so disenchanted with politics that they simply don’t engage anymore. They have the impression that politics have no power. There is a real sentiment of “A quoi bon ?”.
If you want to understand, look at my experience. I’m nearing 40 years old and for all my live the economic news have been filled by a continuous crisis that lead to budget restriction and massive job loss due to decision taken by people outside of Belgium or for the profit of the few. The current Brussels crisis is just a new one.
The only real good that I have seen coming out of the politics are about social change : personal rights, privacy, defense of minorities,… And now some of them are attacked because they don’t allow for the same economic exploitation than in others parts of the world.
Relaying a press release is now called propaganda?
What you have to understand is that news often doesn’t have much time or means to cover local news. To win time they do a lot of copy paste from press releases.
It is therefore the first to send out a press release that gets his point of view best covered in the media.
Source : I am in local politics.
It’s just a lack of means, laziness and the need to publish fast when the news is out
Hold is on een beeteke.
**The Molenbeek opposition is becoming increasingly vocal in its support for Moureaux, as can be seen from reactions to BRUZZ.**
Doesn’t seem quite correct 😛
I know when she will be back, and when she will have an unfortunate relapse.
Then Bruzz is a s much of a propaganda tool as they were lazy at only reporting what the opposition had to say about this.
I think your hate for PS is blinding you a bit buddy.
Spelling mistakes in the friggin’ title? Enough said.
BX1 just let go of 8 people
They themselves complained that they will not be able to do quality work.
https://bx1.be/categories/news/restructuration-chez-bx1-lajp-inquiete-assure-le-personnel-de-son-soutien/
On an unrelated note: the director has given himself a pre-pension of 550.000€
https://www.dhnet.be/actu/belgique/2025/07/04/les-revelations-se-poursuivent-a-propos-de-laffaire-bx1-le-conseil-dadministration-avait-aussi-valide-loctroi-de-bonus-pour-la-direction-5NXLTIR4WFHLVCAXKKEISXULAY/
This is not propaganda. This is destroying democracy by defunding journalism.
Flemish media are also for a large part propaganda channels, especially HLN and Nieuwsblad and their spinoffs. You can read more about the private life of some politicians (often from the same party/ies) in feel-good articles, than about their political views. That is what I call soft propaganda.
The example chosen in this case is not very representative for me. When speaking about the health of a person, I don’t see the purpose to report something else than “we are glad that you recover”.
Regarding the “propaganda” issue in the francophone press I hear a lot of people saying that. But, personally, I do not feel that. I mainly read “le soir” for daily news and “Wilfried” for periodical news. I think that the propaganda stuff mainly happens in the media that need to release plenty of articles in their Facebook feed (such as la DH and l’avenir). Therefore the easy way of doing that is to copy paste press releases. This lacks analysis but I don’t know if it qualifies as propaganda. For me propaganda is more of a common coordinated effort from the in place government to push a narrative (such as : “the f-35 is the best plane we can get” discourse that we get fed with) but not coming from a single isolated politician doing a press release.
Regarding the poor representation of francophone in the protest for the Brussels government I don’t know. Personally I am from Wallonia and I was born in the early 90’s. Since I am politically conscious, all that I saw was the government taking ages to form. And yet Belgium is still working. Therefore in my mind it is “business as usual” and I am not that worried.
Have you ever noticed how the Flemish media kiss Bart De Wever’s ass, ever since about 15 years ago he started systematically attacking and boycotting all media and journalists with too much negative commentary or with difficult questions, in a rather Trumpian way?
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Als eens opgemerkt hoe de Vlaamse media de kont van Bart De Wever likken, sinds hij zo’n 15 jaar geleden systematisch alle media en journalisten met te veel negatieve commentaar of met lastige vragen – op nogal Trumpiaanse wijze – systematisch begon aan te vallen en te boycotten?