On Thursday the VRT announced that its websites that publish articles in languages other than Dutch are to cease publication from 1 December. Currently 5 VRT News journalists, at times assisted by freelancers, work on the sites that publish in English, French and German.
In the announcement that was made on Thursday afternoon the Chief Editors of VRT News said that it had been a “difficult decision" to scrap Flandersnews.be, Flandreinfo.be and Flanderninfo.be. They also expressed praise for the hard work and quality of the articles produced by those that work on the English, French and German sites. However, they also cited (relatively) low reach by the 3 sites in their decision to scrap them from 1 December. Within the context of the financial constraints imposed on the VRT (the Flemish public broadcaster has to save 16.6 million euro between now and 2030) “choices have to be made to ensure that we use the means available to reach all target groups with trustworthy news and current affairs”.
The decision to end publication of the three sites will not result in any redundancies. 2 of the 5 journalists concerned are due to retire next year and alternative employment will be or already has been found for the other 3. Nevertheless, the news came as a shock and disappointment to all concerned.
The end of more than 80 years of media history
The decision brings to an end more than 8 decades of Belgian/Flemish media history that began during WWII with the BNRO’s broadcasts from the BBC’s studios in London and editorial offices in New York.
After the war what was then called the National Institute for Radio (NIR) began its World Service on shortwave, broadcasting from Brussels and Leopoldstad (now Kinshasa) in Congo, the former Zaire. This later became the BRT International, with its daily programme in English Brussels Calling, before becoming Radio Vlaanderen internationaal (RVi) in 1992 that broadcast Flanders Today.
In March 2005 RVi ceased broadcasts of its daily magazine programmes including Flanders Today in languages other than Dutch. By then RVi broadcast on shortwave, mediumwave, DAB and via the Astra satellite. A twice daily bulletin of news in English continued for another one and a half years. In the meantime, those that had worked on the radio programmes were transferred to work on 3 new websites: Flandersnews.be, flandreinfo.be and flanderninfo.be .
On Monday 30 November 2026, after more than 21.5 years, the last articles will be published on our sites. Rest assured that between now and then we will continue to give it our all to ensure that you remain well-informed about news, culture and sport in Flanders and the rest of Belgium.