It sounded convincing. "Flanders has unilaterally declared its independence," was Belgian TV's prime time announcement. But the special broadcast was a staged deception. However, it was so perfectly done that many Belgians took it at face value.
The end of Belgium was merely a "joke in bad taste"
Yesterday evening, 8:21 pm: the French-language government TV station RTBF abruptly interrupts its normal program for a special broadcast. The news anchor, looking grim, announces: "Flanders has unilaterally declared independence." The station switches to a reporter standing in front of the royal palace, who informs viewers: "Belgium has ceased to exist." The king, the reporter says, has declared that he can no longer rule the country; Albert II has gone into exile.
The fiction is maintained for three quarters of an hour. Only then does a text notice appear on the screen explaining that the story is fake. Allegedly—so speculate the Belgian media—the palace called RTBF on the phone and demanded they clear up the whole affair.
Scenes of flag-waving crowds
The program seemed deceptively authentic. Video clips were shown of thousands of Flemish people enthusiastically waving flags, and interviews were also broadcast—all either staged or torn out of context. It seemed so real that millions of Belgians took the program at face value. Ninety percent of the viewers believed what they were being told, according to RTBF. The TV station's website crashed under the load after only a few minutes; excited people were calling each other, completely beside themselves and upset. "My girlfriend called me up to say she thought she was now going to have to sell her house—we believed all of it," said a young woman, shaking her head.
[Translated from the website of the German news program die Tagesschau. Report by Michael Becker, MDR radio correspondent in Brussels.]
The original German text is here:
Das Ende Belgiens war nur ein "unpassender Scherz"
Es klang überzeugend: "Flandern hat einseitig seine Unabhängigkeit erklärt", meldete das belgische Fernsehen gestern zur besten Sendezeit. Doch die Sondersendung war eine Inszenierung. Sie war allerdings so perfekt gemacht, dass viele Belgier sie für bare Münze nahmen.
Von Michael Becker, MDR-Hörfunkkorrespondent Brüssel
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This doesn't have anything to do with American politics directly, but I thought it might be of interest to Kossacks—a kind of political "War of the Worlds." Imagine the impact of a such a fake program in the U.S.—and the outraged reaction. Death of a President would seem mild by comparison.