The ministers for media and women’s rights in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, Jean-Claude Marcourt and Isabelle Simonis respectively, said on Friday that they were calling out RTBF general manager Jean-Paul Philippot about a programme aired on the same morning on Radio Vivacité. During the ‘C'est vous qui le dites’ programme, presenter Benjamin Maréchal invited listeners to react to statements made on Thursday by French porn actress Brigitte Lahaie. Lahaie had said on BFM TV that “you can come during a rape”, but then apologized. “What do you have to say to her?” the Vivacité presenter asked his listeners.
"Approaching such a sensitive and serious topic in this way is intolerable. Not acceptable for a public service media. I’m calling out the general manager of the RTBF [Radio Television Belge Francophone] at this moment,” Marcourt wrote on Twitter.
"It’s totally inappropriate and ethically shameful, particularly for a public service media, to organise a debate on the devastating consequences of this act for the victims and associate it with the idea of pleasure,” Simonis noted.
“l hope the CSA [Higher Audiovisual Council] will take up this issue. I shall call out the general manager of the RTBF and remind him of the measures put in place to eradicate sexual violence in our societies,” the minister added.
The RTBF confirmed that an internal discussion was under way following the many reactions generated by the programme.
The Brussels Times
