How fiction becomes international news

This morning the Belgian media were talking about only one thing: the "fake news" which was aired yesterday evening on the RTBF announcing that Flanders had split up from Belgium.

Now to my US/UK based readers this might not mean a lot but when you know that Belgium is a federal country, with huge political issues between the 3 biggest regions; Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia then you might start to imagine what a shock it was for most of us Belgians to see a special bulletin on national TV announcing the split up of the country.

The thing is, it was all fake and fiction. The coverage of this "news" was part of a series on the history of Belgium and the RTBF (our public, French language TV station) decided that it would be "Orwellian" to only announce that "this is fiction" 30 minutes into the show.

According to people who saw it, it was very well done with live interventions from reporters, interviews with politicians and even rumors of His Majesty the King fleeing the country.

Apart from the "hot topic" this covered I wonder what the RTBF was thinking when they decided to hold back on transparency for 30 minutes ? And what to think of the fact that this "show" was taken seriously by the BBC (covered on their website at the time) & by foreign Ambassadors ? Do reporters not check sources ? Do Ambassadors not get intel from their secret services anymore ?

Here's more coverage on the fake news from yesterday evening. Too bad I missed the show. I do hope they rerun it.

Technorati : bbc, belgium, flanders, news, rtbf, wallonia

Update on Friday, December 15, 2006 at 13:50 by Philippe Borremans

The BUB, the only unionist party in Belgium, will organise a demonstration this Sunday as a reaction to the fake RTBF report about the split up of the country. This "support to Belgium" march will start around 11H00 at the Royal Palace in Brussels.

Transparency notice: I am not a member of this party although I support their ideas. 

Comments

[Cindy]

My husband and I watched the show from the beginning. Our situation is very 'Belgian'. Me: born in Flanders, Dutch speaking, living in Flanders, working in Brussels. Him: born in Flanders, French speaking, living in Flanders, working in Brussels. Our children: born in Brussels, living in Flanders, bilingual. The biggest shock indeed to us was, that right from minute one we didn't buy it and cross-checked with other TV channels and teletext: nothing! How could international media just copy this 'news' without checking it first? The RTBF took way to long to announce this was fiction.