Press Briefing: ‘The Profile of the Belgian Journalist 2023’

Who are the Belgian journalists? What do their working conditions look like? How has the profession changed in the last decade? And what challenges are journalists facing today? On June 21st, CJS members Bart Vanhaelewyn and Sarah Van Leuven - together with their co-researchers Florence Le Cam (ULB) and Manon Libert (UMons) - answered these questions during the presentation of the third national journalism survey.

This survey looks into the profile of the Belgian journalist and is conducted every five years (in Flanders since 2003 and in Wallonia since 2013). The project is a collaboration of Ghent University, Université Libre de Bruxelles and Université de Mons. Besides the above-mentioned researchers, CJS-member Karin Raeymaeckers (UGent) and Coraline Lethimonnier (Université Toulouse) also collaborated on the project.

The event took place at Huis van de Journalist (‘House of the Journalist’) in Brussels and also welcomed the directors of the respectively Flemish and Walloon professional journalism associations Pol Deltour (VVJ) and Martine Simonis (AJP). Last but not least, also the Flemish and Walloon Ministers of Media Benjamin Dalle and Bénédicte Linard were present.

The researchers highlighted how the average Belgian journalist today is still a highly-educated man between 45 to 50 years of age. Furthermore, women in journalism continue to face many challenges to act and access in the profession including a difficult work-life balance, pay gap, horizontal and vertical gender segregation and transgressive behavior. Next, the chasm between freelancing and employed journalists continues to grow both in terms of salary and job satisfaction. Last, more than 50 percent of Belgian journalists has been confronted with transgressive behavior including verbal aggression, intimidation, discrimination and sexual harassment (the latter two mostly for women).

The full report can be consulted here. Don't have time to read the full report? You can find a summary here. The report and summary are written in Dutch.