Belgium

[BE] Towards a Revision of the Constitutional Guarantees on the Freedom of the Press and other Media?

IRIS 1999-6:1/28

Dirk Voorhoof

Human Rights Centre, Ghent University and Legal Human Academy

The official publication of 5 May 1999 contains the new declaration of the revision of the Belgian Constitution. One of the articles that can be modified by the new federal parliament after the elections of 13 June 1999 is article 25 of the Constitution, an article which has not been modified since 1831. The declaration for revision of the Constitution stipulates that the guarantees with regard to the freedom of the press ("The press shall be free; there shall never be any censorship; no security can be demanded of writers, publishers or printers ... ") also have to be made applicable to other means of information. For many years there has been extensive discussion why some of the constitutional guarantees with regard to the print media are not similarly or equally applied to radio, television and other means of mass communication.