A politician in Belgium has had to explain why one of his staff members was allegedly submitting fake opinion pieces to local newspapers. Finance Minister Ben Weyts says he was unaware of the staffer’s actions.
The staff member allegedly presented himself to media outlets as Mohammed El Idrissi, a gay Muslim from Antwerp, before submitting an opinion piece to multiple news organisations.
The fake article was created in response to a recent case where a well known social media influencer Jonatan Medart and his partner had been verbally harassed while walking down a street.
The team at Knack determined the submission was fake, while another publication, Nieuwsblad, tracked down the staff member behind the piece and discovered he was a white, non-Muslim bureaucrat.
The staffer told Nieuwsblad that he wanted to demonstrate what he viewed as a left-wing bias in Flemish media by sending the piece in the hope it would be picked up.
The fictional Mohammed wrote that he had no problem attending his local mosque with his male partner while wearing skinny jeans and a crop top, but that he sometimes experienced homophobic comments from white men in their 70s.
The opinion piece was sent to five publications, with one reportedly publishing it before it was exposed as false. It remained online for around 12 hours before being removed.
Weyts said the staff member’s actions were “dumb” and that they would be having a one-to-one conversation about what had occurred.
“It was a personal initiative, completely separate from the ministry, but that doesn’t make it right. The question now is whether we should immediately punish and expel young people who do dumb things,” the minister said.
