In an open letter to the Belgian Flemish newspaper De Morgen, senior retired journalists of the public Flemish Radio and Television (VRT) call on their current colleagues to break ranks and stop war hysteria.
They write: “Dear ex-colleagues, the undersigned, veterans of public broadcasting news, watch and listen in astonishment to your broadcasts when they discuss war and peace in Ukraine and beyond. We wonder where the balance has gone in your reporting between proponents of ever-increasing armaments for Belgium and Europe and proponents of peaceful, diplomatic solutions. …
“Rearmament advocates, usually (former) military personnel, are given unlimited opportunity to express their opinions without question. Those with differing opinions are rarely invited and are required to justify themselves at length.
“Rarely, if ever, is the key question asked: Do more planes, tanks, drones, and missiles actually mean greater safety for citizens? Citizen safety also means that Brussels residents can take the metro without the risk of being shot dead by drug criminals. Do more F-35 bombers increase this kind of safety? … Why don’t you ever ask these questions of Theo Francken, the Minister of War, who is constantly in your studios?
“Why is the question never asked, why was it so desperately needed for former Soviet states to join NATO? On February 9, 1990, U.S. Secretary of State James Baker publicly stated that NATO would not move ‘one inch’ Eastward after the reunification of Germany. That promise was not kept.
“That Ukraine’s potential NATO membership was the direct cause of the Russian invasion in February 2022 was made abundantly clear by former NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg in a speech to the European Parliament in September 2023. ‘To avoid war, Putin wanted us to sign a document promising that Ukraine would not become a member of the Alliance,’ Stoltenberg said, adding: ‘Of course, we refused.’
“We therefore call on opinion leaders at public broadcasters, editors-in-chief, and journalists to critically examine their own reporting and consider their responsibility to provide the public with the best, most impartial, and complete information available.”
