Flanders is part of the small European country Belgium. It is located at the North Sea with Germany, France, the Netherlands and Luxemburg as neighbouring countries. Belgium has 11.5 million inhabitants. The country is divided in three regions: The Brussels Capital region (1.2 million inhabitants), Wallonia (3.6 million inhabitants) and Flanders with 6.6 million inhabitants the most populated region of Belgium.
Politically, Belgium is considered a Constitutional Parliamentary Monarchy with different authorities given to the Federal government and regional governments. After World War II Flanders has always been governed by the traditional parties: the socialists (SP.A), the Christian-democrats (CD&V) and/or the liberal party (VLD). Since the nineties these parties started to lose the popular vote. The more extreme rightwing party Vlaams Blok / Belang increased their political relevance. This change also paved the way for the upcoming of the Flemish nationalist party (NV-A) who wants to split up Belgium and proclaim independence for Flanders. Since the last elections in May 2019, the political parties have not yet come to an agreement for forming a Federal government. The Flemish government was formed in October 2019, being a coalition between the N-VA, CD&V and Open VLD.
Profile of Flemish media landscape
Belgium consists of three linguistic Communities, one French-speaking, one German-speaking, the other Dutch-speaking. Due to several state reforms the Community authorities were given more powers to regulate the radio and television broadcasting markets. Therefor the Communities have their own media law and media regulators. As a consequence, distinct media markets have formed, with media companies focusing mainly on the Dutch-speaking part, Flanders and others mainly on the French-speaking part, Wallonia. Belgium already being a rather small country, the divide of the media markets results in even smaller media markets, especially compared to their neighbours France and Germany.
The Flemish media is dominated by five media companies, which is branded by the Flemish Regulator of Media (VRM) as highly concentrated. A couple of years ago Flanders still had nine media companies, but after mergers and acquisitions the VRT, DPG Media, Mediahuis, Roularta Media Group and De Vijver Media were the only five left. Consolidation in the media sector continues to raise concerns about pluralism and media freedom. It is incredibly difficult to enter the Flemish media as a new player and stay relevant and profitable.
The Flemish public broadcaster VRT still dominates television and radio broadcasting, especially concerning news programs. On both their main and secondary tv channels she provides a wide variety of news shows viewed by a large part of the Flemings. With more than five different radio stations the VRT tries to reach Flemings across all age groups and has a market share of approximately 60%.
Her main competitor is DPG Media, operating under this name since 2018 after the merger of the commercial TV player Medialaan and the second largest newspaper publisher De Persgroep. It’s the only media company broadcasting news shows, a side from the VRT. In their portfolio they have multiple television and radio channels. DPG Media is also active in the newspaper industry, owning the most popular newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws and the quality newspaper De Morgen.
Mediahuis, publishing four paid-for-dailies, is the main player in the newspaper industry. They own the second most popular newspaper Het Nieuwsblad, the quality newspaper De Standaard and the biggest regional newspapers Gazet van Antwerpen and Het Belang van Limburg. The market leader, concerning magazines is Roularta Media Group. They offer a broad range of magazines on news but also on lifestyle, sports and business.
All these media companies also dominate the Flemish digital media. Other Flemish online media initiatives don’t get a foothold in the highly volatile and competitive media market. Foreign media outlets reach the Flemings mainly through the internet, but also via radio and television.
Leading news media sample 2020
Our media sample for MDM 2020 consists of nine leading news media titles. Newspapers, magazines, radio, broadcasting, online, … are included. More concretely, three national quality daily newspapers (De Standaard, De Morgen, De Tijd), two regional daily newspapers (Het Belang van Limburg, Gazet van Antwerpen), one news magazine (Knack) and two daily tabloids (Het Nieuwsblad, Het Laatste Nieuws) are covered in the analysis. Our sample also includes information on the two main news broadcasters: public broadcaster VRT and commercial broadcaster DPG Media.
We interviewed journalists and head-editors from Roularta Media Group, DPG Media and Mediahuis . In addition, the chairman of the journalist’s union (VVJ) was interviewed as well. We were, largely because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent pressure on newsrooms, not able to set-up interviews with journalists of all the leading news media. Necessary information was retrieved though, on the basis of previous interviews with these news brands on similar subjects.
COVID-19 pandemic
Belgium went into lockdown (light) on the 17th of March. The Government banned public gatherings and events, closed borders to neighbouring countries and a majority of the stores were forced to shut down. Working from home became the new normal. This had off course an impact on the lives of all Flemings, also on their (news) media consumption.
The first weeks of the lockdown we saw a substantial rise of news consumption. More and more people tuned in, especially the news shows at 7 PM and the press conferences of the National Security Council attracted a lot of viewers. On the 15th of March a record amount of 1.57 million people viewed the 7 PM news show of the Flemish public broadcaster (VRT). The news sites of the Flemish leading news media generated a marked increase in traffic. The leading news media also noted a rise in subscribers. This would have been good news, if at the same time the advertising market hadn’t collapsed. According to the Union of Belgian Advertisers (UBA) 80% of advertisers postponed their advertising campaigns. The fall of income from advertisements made, especially commercial media organizations, go into ‘crisis mode’.
This had a severe impact on Flemish journalists, according to this survey. In particular, freelance journalists were hit hard by the crisis. More than half had less work and income in March and April. 40% asked for Governmental support. Salaried employed journalists were less affected, however 8% had to choose for temporary unemployment. At the same time the virus changed journalistic working methods. Face-to-face interviews, press conferences and access to buildings were drastically hindered. Journalists had to shift to online sources and interviewing via telephone.
The last few weeks the Government started to screw back restrictions and a return to ‘normal’ live lays ahead. The news consumption is normalizing, with more and more people making mention of ‘corona-fatigue’.
Conclusions
Because of its complex linguistical and political situation, Belgium is often the odd country out. This is no different when looking at its distinct media markets, with little overlap or exchanges between the Dutch and French speaking media outlets. Several Flemish media companies have expanded their activities beyond Flanders though, most notably holding very powerful positions in the Dutch media market and being active in Ireland and Denmark as well. Both on the company and the newsroom level, there are few formal rules to either promote or prevent internal democracy, internal and external influence on newsrooms and gender equality. Even though Belgian female journalists have, in comparison with their male colleagues, enjoyed more education, they are still a minority in the workforce and are paid less too.
Belgium’s Dutch speaking media market is small and highly concentrated, with a handful of legacy news brands dominating news consumption. There is a diverse range of brands, dissemination platforms and outlets. News diversity is increasingly put under pressure though as articles are ever more copy-pasted across titles under the same company/conglomerate. There are no specific minority media, though in recent years a few online-only alternative, and often right-wing, news media have emerged and are increasingly gaining momentum through social media. Citizens’ participation remains at a staggering low. Moreover, there are growing fears that government will monitor the impartiality the Flemish public broadcaster in a way that might jeopardise its independence.
Nonetheless, we assigned higher average scores to the control / watchdog dimension because of widely reported large degrees of independence, overall satisfying degrees of professionalism and job security for journalists, and reasonable opportunities for them to access information and follow professional trainings.
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