During the plenary session held this Wednesday in the Parliament of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, a debate took place regarding the media cordon sanitaire applied by the RTBF during the inauguration speech of the new President of the United States, Donald Trump. A speech broadcast with a slight delay by the public broadcaster. Like many viewers, group leader Diana Nikolic said she was troubled by this choice made by the public broadcaster, “in order to allow for perspective”.
While the PS believes that the RTBF has the right to an independent editorial line and to apply the cordon sanitaire to far-right speeches, the MR points out that in French-speaking Belgium, the cordon sanitaire applies to far-right parties. Whether or not one likes his political project or his remarks, the new President of the United States, Donald Trump, was democratically elected under the Republican Party banner. The group leader reiterated that, for the MR, the role of the media is to analyse, comment on and explain information in order to give viewers the tools to form their own opinion, without imposing anything on them.
When questioned, Media Minister Jacqueline Galant also said she was “surprised by (this) decision of the RTBF”. “Without at all questioning the principle of the cordon sanitaire, I do question the effectiveness of this decision, given that all the other French-speaking media broadcast this swearing-in live.” She also announced her intention to question the RTBF in order to learn about the “methodology” and the “legal arguments” on which the public broadcaster relied to make this decision.