LA LIBRE BELGIQUE AND DH PUBLISH A VIDEO FROM ANTI-ISLAM RALLY UNDER THE TITLE – “ALL THE ARABS, ALL THE MUSLIMS, ALL THIS SHIT – OUT”

In December 2018, the centrist francophone Belgian daily La Libre Belgique and its sister publication DH published a video from the so-called “March Against Marrakech” on their websites. This video features extreme-right protesters shouting anti-Muslim hate and threatening violence. Disturbingly, no editorial explanation contextualising the video and the decision to publish it was present alongside the footage itself. 

The European Forum of Muslim Women (EFMW), GTTO partner for francophone media in Belgium, sent an official complaint to La Libre’s editors. EFOMW asked why the editors waited until the video reached more than 3000 views before removing it. Noting La Libre’s “the serious and well-respected” reputation, our partners queried the rationale behind publishing this video in the first place. Initially no reply was received but the video was removed. However, the title above the video remained in place. EFOMW received an excellent response from the editor saying ‘Such comments obviously had no place on LaLibre.be. I also relayed your message to my counterpart DH.be, who immediately deleted this sequence. I thank you for having warned us of the existence of this video which should never have been found as such on the sites of our press group".

GTTO are delighted to cooperate with La Libre on this issue and look forward to working with them in the future.