Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe BRUSSELS, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Viewers of Belgian public broadcasting station RTBF have complained after the station staged a televised hoax depicting a split of the country. The French-language station broadcast a fake news report saying Flemish nationalists had declared independence from the French-speaking part of the country, The Times of London reported Friday. Advertisement Fadila Laanan, the minister responsible for TV in French-speaking Wallonia, forced the station to admit the hoax 40 minutes into the broadcast after thousands of concerned viewers called the station. Many of the callers were reportedly in tears over the reports that the country had split. Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said the broadcast was in poor taste, comparing the program to Orson Welles's 1938 "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast that, despite several in-program disclaimers, convinced many U.S. citizens that Martians were invading the Earth. "It is very bad Orson Welles, in very poor taste," a spokesman for the prime minister told The Times. "In the current context, it is irresponsible for a public television channel to announce the end of Belgium as a reality presented by genuine journalists." Advertisement
