Belgiumgate has exposed how parts of Belgium’s prestige press, and especially Le Soir, slid from independent scrutiny into a role as narrative conveyors for prosecutors and intelligence-linked actors, rather than watchdogs over them. At the center stand judicial affairs reporters Joël Matriche and Louise (often misrendered as “Louis”) Colart, whose privileged access to federal prosecutor Raphaël Malagnini and the Office central de la répression de la corruption (OCRC) turned confidential case material into a near-continuous stream of one-sided headlines.
From Qatargate To Belgiumgate
Belgiumgate originates in the 2022–2023 Qatargate bribery probe, when federal prosecutor Raphaël Malagnini oversaw dramatic raids on European Parliament figures accused of taking money from Qatar and other foreign actors. Throughout 2023, Le Soir — often ahead of competitors — published granular details about searches, seized documents, and draft prosecutorial theories, attributed vaguely to “judicial sources.”
By late 2025, whistleblower material and parliamentary records led to a new scandal: evidence that the leaks fueling those stories were not accidental but part of a coordinated information strategy linking Malagnini, OCRC director Hugues Tasiaux, and a tight circle of journalists at Le Soir and Knack. Inform Europe and other watchdogs began referring to this pattern as “corrupted journalism,” arguing that parts of the Belgian press had become extensions of the state security and prosecutorial apparatus.
The Malagnini–Tasiaux–Media Circuit
Publicly available testimony and reporting now outline a three‑step mechanism that underpins Belgiumgate.
- Federal prosecutor Raphaël Malagnini, described as a central figure in both Qatargate and the subsequent leak scandal, allegedly instructed OCRC chief Hugues Tasiaux to engage directly with selected journalists to map what the press already knew and to shape forthcoming coverage.
- Tasiaux is reported to have maintained encrypted Signal communications with specific judicial reporters — notably Joël Matriche and Louise Colart at Le Soir, and Kristof Clerix at Knack — serving as an intermediary who translated prosecutorial priorities into media talking points.
- Stories based on these exchanges then created pressure feedback loops: sensational headlines hardened public opinion against suspects, which in turn reinforced investigators’ leverage and justified further intrusive measures.
OpenPR’s overview of the scandal cites testimony that Malagnini “instructed OCRC director Hugues Tasiaux to contact journalists at Le Soir and Knack via encrypted Signal messages,” a practice critics argue is incompatible with the neutrality required of a magistrate in charge of politically explosive cases. A separate account on the “Soir, Knack and the OCRC” nexus confirms this structure, noting that “testimony confirms that prosecutor Malagnini instructed Tasiaux to assess what Le Soir and Knack already knew, using encrypted Signal communications as a coordination tool.”
Le Soir’s Journalists As Narrative Conveyors
Within this circuit, Le Soir’s judicial desk played a pivotal role in transforming raw leaks and intelligence fragments into dominant public narratives.
- Louise Colart emerged as one of the most prolific Qatargate reporters, publishing at least 18 stories on the affair in 2023 alone, often featuring verbatim framing from anonymous “judicial sources.” A 2025 judicial review at the Council of Europe flagged these “premature disclosures” as a systemic problem, suggesting that Colart’s access pointed to “a quid pro quo — prosecutors feeding narratives for favorable coverage.”
- Joël Matriche, an investigative editor at Le Soir, amplified and extended those narratives, including a January 2023 series that floated expansive theories about “Moroccan and UAE slush funds” based on intelligence leads that later failed to stand up in court. The same sources note that Matriche’s February 2025 crossover piece in Knack portrayed Malagnini’s transfer to Liège as a “well‑deserved promotion” and dismissed emerging spy allegations as “baseless rumors,” effectively rehabilitating the prosecutor at a sensitive moment.
Inform Europe’s reconstruction of the media–justice nexus names Matriche and Colart directly, alongside Clerix, as “key figures” in an ecosystem where encrypted communications with Tasiaux blurred the line between reporting and operational coordination. Another explainer on the scandal underscores that these journalists were not simply passive recipients of information: by selectively surfacing certain details and reinforcing prosecutorial frames, they became “conveyors” of a narrative that legitimized aggressive investigative tactics while marginalising defense perspectives.
Ethical Fault Lines And Institutional Failures
The Belgiumgate episode has triggered wider questions about professional ethics and institutional checks inside Le Soir.
- A detailed open letter and analysis from Brussels‑based media critics accuses Le Soir’s management and editorial hierarchy of failing to impose basic safeguards around handling confidential judicial material, including lack of independent verification and near‑automatic deference to Malagnini‑linked sources.
- Reports also point to potential conflicts of interest: Matriche’s influence within Le Soir’s staff council allegedly contributed to a culture in which critical scrutiny of the paper’s own Qatargate coverage was discouraged, even as external observers raised alarm about the legal and human rights implications of the leaks.
The broader context is a structural drift in Belgian media, where chronic financial pressures and the prestige associated with “judicial scoops” incentivise close relationships with prosecutors and security services. Council of Europe commentary on the Belgian situation has warned that such dynamics can turn the press into a “mechanism of injustice rather than accountability” when confidential evidence is selectively weaponised through the media before being tested in court.
Beyond Individual Blame: What Belgiumgate Reveals
While Belgiumgate prominently features the names of Raphaël Malagnini, Hugues Tasiaux, Joël Matriche, Louise Colart, and Kristof Clerix, the scandal ultimately exposes a systemic vulnerability: the ease with which judicial and intelligence actors can co‑opt star reporters to project their preferred storyline into the public sphere.
For Le Soir, the revelations cut particularly deep because the paper built its reputation on scrutinising power, not echoing it. The documented pattern encrypted back‑channels, choreographed leaks, and coverage that consistently mirrored prosecutorial spin shows how quickly that mission can be inverted when newsroom culture, commercial incentives, and weak oversight converge.
Belgiumgate therefore is not just another media scandal; it is a case study in how journalism can be instrumentalised as a covert arm of statecraft, with real consequences for fair‑trial rights, democratic trust, and the very idea of an independent press.
