ENORB COMPLAINS ABOUT A DOG WHISTLING SENTENCE ON RTBF

Get the Trolls Out! Partner, European Network on Religion and Belief (ENORB) has sent a letter of complaint to RTBF, the French language public service broadcaster in Belgium, for an article about recent police shooting following a knife attack.

ENORB raised their concerns about the first sentence in the article: “We learned this from the police, who at this stage do not mention any religious or terrorist motivation for the assault.”

In their letter, ENORB wrote: “This sentence leaves us very perplexed at the very least. It prompts several questions: what is the difference between a religious and a terrorist motivation? What is your definition of both? Why this distinction? Will the violence committed by a terrorist actor claiming a religious affiliation be less terrorist and more religious then? We fear that we are not the only ones to have understood the implication, where the journalist still does not know the identity of the author: is he Muslim or not?”

ENORB highlighted that, in news story where terrorism has many faces, it is important not to ignore violence also committed by white supremacist groups: “Why is belonging to another identity not questioned?”

ENORB recognised that that sentence is an example of dog whistle politics, a political message expressed in coded language that seems to mean one thing to the general population while simultaneously having additional, different, or more specific resonance for a targeted subgroup.

In their message, ENORB offered RTBF to participate to create a dialogue of trust between the media and the most fragile minorities.

In their response, RTBF stated that “no religion is mentioned and therefore stigmatised” in the mentioned sentence and that they are attentive to questions of stereotypes in its content.