All the leading Flemish news media houses agreed that investigative and watchdog journalism is and remains essential. Both public and private media companies agreed that investigation is the first and noble duty of all journalists. Most of the respondents explained that in their media company and newsroom, investigative reporting is welcomed and supported. The Flemish public broadcaster VRT is even obliged to invest time and money into investigative journalism, resulting in startling reports about corruption in politics, privacy issues, and so on.
Flemish journalists reported that their most important tasks are to bring to the public reliable information, articulating this information in an understandable way, being impartial, and analysing and interpreting complex societal problems. Almost 70 per cent declared that being the watchdog of democracy is of utmost importance (Van Leuven et al., 2019).
