Belgium’s Council for Journalistic Ethics (CDJ) went after 21News for daring to publish the Vice President’s full speech during the Munich Security Conference of 2025.
By Catholics for Catholics
One of Belgium’s ruling bodies for press ethics sanctioned a media news organization of that country for publishing the full text of Vice President JD Vance’s landmark speech at Munich’s security conference last year.
Belgium’s Council for Journalistic Ethics (CDJ) ruled that the Belgian news site 21News, violated journalistic standards, according to The European Conservative.
The problem comes from Vance’s extensively talked about Feb. 14, 2025, speech at the Munich Security Conference, where the vice president blasted what he described as a growing erosion of free speech and democratic values across Europe.
Newsmax reported that according to the French outlet Le Point, Vance’s address left many members of Europe’s political establishment flabbergasted, as they gathered in the German city, where Western leaders and defense officials meet annually to discuss global security.
In a fiery, mincing no words type of speech, Vance warned that Europe faces a threat not only from external adversaries, but also from internal restrictions on liberty.
“The threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia. … It’s the threat from within,” Vance said, citing examples of social media censorship, canceled elections, and criminal penalties tied to religious expression.
The day after the Vance speech, 21News, a Belgian news site, published the full text of the speech so readers could access Vance’s remarks directly.
21News contended that the transcript was hard to find in full and that providing primary sources helps readers assess political arguments themselves.
However, almost a year later, Belgium’s Council for Journalistic Ethics (CDJ) ruled the outlet violated journalistic standards, according to The European Conservative.
The complaint had been filed anonymously and invoked Belgium’s “cordon sanitaire,” an informal media and political practice dating to the 1990s that seeks to limit exposure for views associated with the political right.
While accepting News21 editorial freedom, the ethics council said the speech should have been “verified, contextualized, or corrected” before publication.
21News director Eric Dujardin defended the outlet’s decision, saying publishing a speech does not equal endorsing it.
“Readers should be able to access the original source,” he said.
Vance’s Munich speech itself continues to reverberate across Europe and the U.S.
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