The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting

spwa4

Yes, the Brussels state is in desperate need of funds, so they rent out public parks, including the Cinquantenaire, for private events. Of course, during such events the park is not accessible to the public, and there's private security who can hand over anyone to the Brussels police to be escorted out of the park. You know, like you can do in your apartment too. So if Bill White, the US ambassador, pays to rent out the park for, I think it was 2 weeks, they can have whoever they want removed from this public park. Including any reporters.

elil17

For additional context, tensions are already high surrounding the US ambassador after he directly insulted multiple Belgian politicians and also attempted to interfere with local criminal judicial proceedings.

Imustaskforhelp

The Streisand Effect is taking effect in here in terms of surpressing a question has lead to many more people finding out about it, as it should be and I just find some layers of irony about America celebrating its freedom while this whole thing happens because of press freedom. I did some search on freedom250.org and found this interesting piece of TOS: YOU WAIVE AND HOLD HARMLESS THE COMPANY AND ITS AFFILIATES, LICENSEES, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS FROM ANY CLAIMS RESULTING FROM ANY ACTION TAKEN BY THE COMPANY/ANY OF THE FOREGOING PARTIES DURING, OR TAKEN AS A CONSEQUENCE OF, INVESTIGATIONS BY EITHER THE COMPANY/SUCH PARTIES OR LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES. also it seems to be an wholly owned subsidiary of a Non profit (national park foundation): https://www.nationalparks.org/freedom-250-faqs#:~:text=NPS%2... I am not a lawyer but I am unsure if this terms of service applies to the website or anything in general and if the European correspondent can sue freedom250.org or not

blitzar

free speech, I fear, is in retreat

itake

reminds me of Dan Brown's latest book: The Secret of Secrets.

dimitrios1

"Belgian police willingly comply with U.S. ambassador's request, and Belgian police stopped your reporting" FTFY > a foreign ambassador had Belgian police remove us Belgian police removed us . FTFY again. The article is making a good point, especially the hilarious irony of all the private companies, and US being complicit in limiting press freedom. But it also fails to recognize the agency and complicitness of the Belgian authorities as well, and makes them out to be some sort of innocent bystandards -- "Oh look those poor Belgians being bullied by the big bad US!" If they didn't want to remove you, they simply could have not.

nashashmi

More and more we see the relationship with authoritarianism (police) and tyranny (those in power) out in the open. We see this with the protests in Germany for Gaza. We see this in Britain with freedom of speech taken away from Palestine supporters. And we see this shamelessly occurring from the Trump world. I used to balk at those who were too worried at growing government power, but this is a wake up call. Protections have to be in place for the vast majority of people, even if it does allow a few criminals to get away.

pngwen

I’d say the embassy did a good job of exporting the American journalistic experience. The only point of inauthenticity is that neither journalist suffered any lasting physical harm.

buellerbueller

America: a terrified little country, run by a small, terrified maniac.

elric

I hope the journalists in question will lodge a complaint with the Belgian police watchdog, Comité P: https://comitep.be Belgium has been pretty repressive towards certain journalists for a while now. Our "World Press Freedom Index"-score has gone down a fair bit in recent years, and rightly so. The current prime minister and his friends have a history of litigating against journalists who exposed some questionable deals, so it's all to be expected.

szmarczak

> They were “just doing their job,” It's always this one exact excuse. They were simply "following orders". The police don't have their own brains capable of thinking.

ralferoo

"... a foreign government using local police to eject reporters over a single question from a public space turned private at the will of the American government is not a minor diplomatic awkwardness." The fact it's a public space is kind of irrelevant here, if the landowners (the city council, I guess) decide to temporarily allow private use. If some roads had been closed for film production use etc, the police would similarly be involved in removing people who interfered with the proceedings and didn't leave when asked to. The land owner has given the company exclusive rights to the space for the duration of the event. Whether ejecting someone from a press event for asking a question you don't like is right or not (I personally think it's not) is irrelevant. At the point they ask you to leave for whatever reason and you don't comply, then it becomes trespass and the police can be asked to remove you.

mito88

not surprised

einpoklum

> It happened roughly 300 metres from the European Commission, in Europe's capital. Well, considering the EU's general direction, that is perpahsp appropriate symbolism :-( > For a continent that lectures others on press freedom Well, if it becomes difficult to lead by example: https://europeanjournalists.org/blog/2026/03/03/press-freedo... then lecturing about it is the thing to do I guess. The US is famous for lecturing other world states about human rights.

greenleafone7

What is weird in all of this is why is the US obsessed with israel so much exactly! Was it a random choice; did they had a random number generator pick it? Why are they not going to such lengths for other random countries in the opposite side of the world for example? And if an official's number one priority is not the people that pay him and have granted him his power, should he be in that position? The US is turning into a planetary joke and it's sad to see.

outside1234

We elected a kakistocracy. The sane majority of us are sorry about this and the road back starts this fall. Please report about this at length. This is the risk you all face if you elect a bunch of ultra right wing nut jobs.

Havoc

Sounds like the Americans lied to get a stronger response than warranted. Can definitely understand why police would roll aggressively and with limited info if they’re lead to believe there is an active threat at a mass public event.

MetaWhirledPeas

"The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting" Or reworded: "Belgian police stop our reporting simply because some foreign ambassador asked for it"

trwhite

So much for the "free speech" Vance hounded us Europeans with. All lies, of course.

pluc

Man, the World Apology Tour is gonna be a generational event won't it