Newspapers lose legal appeal against RTBF's free online news

Belgium’s Council of State has ruled that French-speaking public broadcaster RTBF can continue to publish its news articles free of charge on its website, after a legal challenge by several newspapers.

None of the complaints made by press publishers and LaPresse.be – an alliance of French- and German-language news media in Belgium – was upheld.

In a saga that began back in 2010, the print media groups wanted to annul RTBF’s last 2023-2027 management contract, accusing RTBF of unfair competition in view of its publication of free articles.

But in a very technical 39-page document, the Council of State said that the RTBF contract did not violate "the requirements of the decree defining RTBF’s public service remit, or the requirements of European competition law".

It added: "It does not infringe the freedom of enterprise of print media titles. It does not infringe the freedom of the press."

The administrative court therefore validated the management contract which had already been adapted in response to the press groups’ criticism. But no further changes can be made to the document that outlines the RTBF’s objectives and operations.

RTBF’s legal director Simon-Pierre De Coster approved this ruling, which he said was a clear victory for the broadcaster.

"As a legal expert, I can only welcome this victory across the board," he said. "The Council of State's ruling is final. No appeal is possible. RTBF will therefore continue to produce news articles on its website, more than 50,000 a year, while maintaining the current provisions."

In short, the RTBF can still publish news articles free of charge on its website, subject to certain restrictions set out in the management contract.

Some 60% of the articles must contain an audio or video report, while the other 40% of articles must be less than 1,500 characters long.

Articles must be related to subjects developed on radio and television and treated in an objective, journalistic way by the editorial staff.

The press publishers had argued that the articles were insufficiently related, that too many were exempt from journalistic treatment, and that too many of them had no link to radio or television. In all cases, the Council of State dismissed the complaints.

Photo: Eric Lalmand/Belga