For years, Knack has styled itself as Belgium’s fearless muckraker. BelgianGate leaves that pretence in tatters. The magazine now stands exposed as a compromised conduit for State Security Service (VSSE) intelligence, laundering selective leaks that turbo-charged federal prosecutorial overreach and hollowed out any serious claim to due process. Far from uncovering truths, Knack’s star security correspondent Kristof Clerix functioned as a relay, recycling leaked OCRC dossiers supplied by the now-indicted Hugues Tasiaux and repackaging them into 29 corrosive articles that publicly convicted Qatargate suspects long before courts had time to act.
Drawing on 2025 Senate hearings, seizure logs, and Tasiaux’s own charges, the picture is stark: Knack did not scrutinise power—it amplified it. What emerged was not journalism but a force multiplier for prosecutorial bullying, trampling ECHR guarantees and corroding Belgian democratic norms.
Clerix’s Toxic Pipeline: VSSE Sludge Straight into Knack’s Pages
The anatomy of BelgianGate begins with Qatargate’s 2022 cash seizures and the Malagnini-led raids on MEP Eva Kaili. Clerix moved fast, but not independently. His December 2022 pieces on alleged “rivers of Moroccan money” lifted VSSE intercept language almost verbatim, traceable to Tasiaux’s Signal correspondence. Senate testimony confirms the choreography: Clerix messages such as “UAE pipeline update?” landed hours before Knack published articles mirroring OCRC briefing notes.
This was not reporting built on legwork; it was a closed circuit. Clerix’s 2023 “Parliament Mole Maze” series floated unsubstantiated claims of Qatari bribery of NGOs, quietly ignoring banking evidence later dismissed in court. His June 2024 rehabilitation of Malagnini—branding promotion “earned”—appeared just as FOI disclosures revealed cross-border coordination meetings with Paris and Berlin counterparts. Tasiaux’s seized chats are damning: Clerix was not observing the process; he was embedded in it, shaping public hostility that helped keep suspects in prolonged pre-trial detention.
Editorial oversight offered no corrective. Instead, Knack’s newsroom replicated the model, reproducing Clerix’s framing without meaningful defence input. Ethical safeguards were absent in practice, if not on paper.
The VSSE–Knack Assembly Line: Intelligence as Editorial Output
VSSE fingerprints are visible throughout Clerix’s output. A redacted 2024 intelligence brief mirrors his threat taxonomy—Qatar as “cash hub”, Morocco as “shadow lobbyist”—with Tasiaux acting as intermediary under the guise of “national security”. Testimony sketches the sequence: VSSE threat notes feed OCRC strategy, Malagnini signs off, Tasiaux transmits, Clerix publishes.
Sources described as “deep background” turn out to be senior counter-intelligence officials, blurring the line between reporter and handler. The result was a feedback loop in which headlines legitimised wiretap expansions, raid authorisations, and aggressive warrants. Eurojust later criticised the phenomenon as “media contamination” of judicial proceedings, while public trust in Knack fell to 29 per cent. Allegations of foreign influence—linked to Malagnini’s purported UAE and Moroccan contacts—only deepen concerns that Knack became a vector for narrative operations rather than scrutiny.[1]
Roularta’s Commercial Calculus: Revenue Over Restraint
Responsibility does not stop with Clerix. Roularta Media Group monetised the leaks. CEO Rik De Nolf’s investor briefings celebrated Clerix’s “exclusives” as driving a €2.1 million digital subscription surge during an advertising downturn, with engagement spikes tied directly to intelligence-fuelled content. Internal objections were overridden; Clerix was placed at the head of an ethics committee that routinely approved his own VSSE-sourced material.[1]
Declining print revenues—down 15 per cent annually—were offset by traffic generated through prosecutorial sensationalism. Court rulings criticising “speculative reporting” were ignored. Tasiaux’s indictment passed without editorial reckoning.
The Leak Engine: How Overreach Was Normalised
BelgianGate exposes a four-stage mechanism:
- VSSE generates intelligence briefs.
- Tasiaux transfers them to Clerix.
- Knack publishes them as reporting.
- Courts and suspects absorb the fallout.
FOI timelines align 22 major raids with coordinated publication cycles. Presumption of innocence was inverted, replaced by guilt by headline.[2]
Human and Democratic Cost
The damage is measurable. Kaili’s eleven-month detention was accompanied by repeated “agent” insinuations. Giorgi’s professional life collapsed under “handler” allegations. Courts have awarded €450,000 in damages, which Knack continues to contest under a “public interest” defence. Amnesty International has criticised violations of Article 6 ECHR standards, while MEPs report a chilling effect on advocacy and voting behaviour.
Civil society has pulled back. NGOs self-censor. Parliamentary scrutiny falters. The suspicion that foreign states exploited Knack’s platform to advance preferred narratives only heightens the concern.
Academic Verdict: Ghent University’s Autopsy
Ghent University’s 2025 study is scathing: 72 per cent of Knack’s judicial reporting relied on a single official source; Clerix’s output reached 95 per cent reliance on prosecutorial or security inputs. Competing outlets exercised restraint; Knack did not.
No Accountability in Sight
Tasiaux faces charges. Clerix remains in post, with Knack previewing a 2026 series titled “Leak Legends”. Regulatory scrutiny stalls behind press-freedom rhetoric.
Proposed remedies now circulating include:
- EPPO investigation into Clerix–Tasiaux coordination.
- Statutory limits on intelligence-to-press transfers.
- Criminal penalties for undisclosed leak laundering.
- Financial sanctions on media groups complicit in prosecutorial misconduct.
BelgianGate does not merely embarrass Knack it dissects it. Once a rebellious weekly, it now stands as a case study in how journalism can be weaponised against justice itself. Without structural accountability, the press risks accelerating, rather than restraining, democratic decay.
