“Freedom of expression has a real problem in Belgium,” a media founder has said after a journalism watchdog punished his outlet for publishing the full transcript of a speech by US Vice President JD Vance without additional commentary.
The remarks were made by Etienne Dujardin, director and founder of Belgian outlet 21News, after the country’s Council for Journalistic Ethics (CDJ) upheld a complaint against the publication over an article reproducing Vance’s address at the 2025 Munich Security Conference. In a post on social media, Dujardin described…