The MVVP Media Law team contributed to the Belgian chapter of the Chambers Defamation and Reputation Management Global Practice Guide.
In Belgium the national broadcasters and newspapers generally have a high standard for privacy, accuracy and journalistic ethics. Nevertheless, there are individual cases in which press reporting does not meet those standards and therefore there is a fair amount of disputes.
The Chapter was written by Olivier Sasserath, Herman Croux, Peter Marx and Jari Vrebos.
The Guide deals with questions such as:
- What are the legal grounds for protecting privacy and confidentiality, for defamation and for harassment in the jurisdiction?
- What must a claimant establish?
- What are the remedies available?
- What are the deadlines/limitation periods for bringing an action?
- What is the relevant regulatory framework pertaining to broadcasting, the press, other publishers, and online/social media?
We highlight 3 specific Belgian features.
No preventive measures
In the case of press publication (whether in print, broadcast or online) preventive injunctions (i.e. injunctions aiming at preventing the publication or the broadcast of information) are not possible, as they are contrary to article 25.1 of the Belgian Constitution: “The press is free; censorship can never be established”.
In its ruling of 29 march 2011 in the case RTBF, the ECHR ruled that the Belgian legislative system does not make it possible to determine with sufficient precision when a ‘preventive’ injunction is possible, and therefore that the Belgian legal system does not meet the requirements of article 10.2 ECHR to allow a restriction of the freedom of speech protected under article 10 ECHR.
Despite that decision, some courts sometimes still grant unilateral requests for preventive injunctions, aimed at preventing the publication of articles. These decisions are nowadays almost systematically overturned on (third-party) appeal.
Jury trial for defamation procedures
Criminal proceedings for defamation in printed press (offline and online) are as good as inexistent, as they require a jury trial (art. 150 of the Belgian Constitution), which is a very cumbersome and exceptional proceeding.
Right of answer
Any person named in press publication can apply for a right of answer to be published by the media. The system applies to printed press but also to audiovisual press. Discussion is pending as to the status of the right of answer in online press.
For the printed press, any person mentioned (even implicitly) can ask for a reply to be published in the next press issue, at the same place as the original press article was published. Merely being mentioned is sufficient to exercise the right, no harm must be established. The answer cannot exceed thousand characters neither the double of the text that justifies the answer. The right of answer must be submitted within 3 months after the publication of the original article.
For the audiovisual press, any person has the right to request the insertion free of charge of a reply if his/her legitimate rights, in particular concerning his/her honour or reputation, have been prejudiced as a result of an incorrect allegation made during the broadcast of a programme. The request shall be made in writing within one month after the broadcast. The length of the reply must be limited to what is strictly necessary to react to the information that gave rise to the request. The response must be able to be read in a maximum of three minutes or contain a maximum of 4,500 typographical characters.
MVVP is a household name in the media, advertising and entertainment industry for more than 25 years, dealing with IP, media regulatory work and reputation management. Recent work includes litigation related to damages incurred by a business in the aviation industry because of press reporting, litigation on preventive measures of a politician against press reporting, litigation on preventive measures against an audiovisual broadcast, obtaining rights of reply by a foreign businessman in a financial newspaper, and advising a foreign media group on Belgian regulatory law.
Link to the Chambers Guide : Defamation & Reputation Management 2025 – Belgium | Global Practice Guides | Chambers and Partners
