The Flemish Parliament was criticized on Thursday with alleged plans to expand the role of its own home broadcaster. None of it, says parliament speaker Liesbeth Homans.
The extension of the exploitation of vlaamsparlement.tv, the parliamentary TV channel of the Flemish hemisphere, is not without a struggle. By the end of this year, the concession – currently owned by the non-profit organization Het Halfrond – must be renewed. This innovation comes with both an increase in the budget and a broadening of the channel’s focus, the Mediahuis newspapers reported on Thursday.
The budget would go from 452,000 euros now to 700,000 euros per year by 2024. Kris Hoflack, communications director of the Flemish Parliament and former editor-in-chief at both VTM and VRT, also advocated a broadening of the channel, which now includes the classic reports and interviews from the hemisphere. The programming now shows ‘little creativity’. ‘Attention to culture, tourism and gastronomy and the history of Flanders’ can remedy this.
Core task
It elicited the question on social media and among Flemish parliamentarians, such as Maurits Vande Reyde of Open VLD, whether this belongs to the core task of the parliament – certainly in budgetary difficult times. Liesbeth Homans (N-VA), the chairwoman of the Flemish Parliament, countered in the afternoon that no budget increase was planned until 2024. The money that the channel receives is not only used for its own broadcasts, but also to get images to the regional TV channels.
There was and will never be a cooking show, as reported in the press.
A possible broadening of the range is on the table. The Extended Bureau of the Flemish Parliament decided after a positive evaluation in October to continue the operation of vlaamsparlement.tv. In the new agreement, ‘quality’ and ‘an improved offer’ will have to come first, it was said at the time. The possible expansion is being considered, but “there was and will never be a cooking show, as reported in the press,” says Homans.
The Flemish Parliament channel was created in 2005 – then still under the name Actua TV – as an idea of journalist Ludwig Verduyn. He was previously editor-in-chief of De Morgen and is behind the millionaire ranking of De Rijkste Belgians. The channel initially focused on the political activities of the Flemish Parliament, the Chamber, the Senate and the European Parliament. In 2018, the focus narrowed to the Flemish Parliament. That is why the name changed to vlaamsparlement.tv. Verduyn is still editor-in-chief.