Brussels Attacks: The urgency to inform

Feature Docs

Run Time

41'

Year of Production

2025

Producer

Découpages, RTBF

Pitch

March 22, 2016: terrorist attacks strike Zaventem Airport and the Maelbeek metro station. Brussels is in shock. As emotion sweeps across the country, newsrooms upheave their editions. Louis Liégeois, then 16 years old, follows the events live. Ten years later, having become a journalist, he seeks to understand how his profession experienced that tragic day. In “Brussels Attacks: The Urgency to Inform,” journalists from RTBF, La Libre, and Agence France-Presse look back, hour by hour, on this extraordinary day. Through their testimonies, the documentary dives into the behind-the-scenes workings of newsrooms in times of crisis—where every minute counts, where information must be verified, prioritized, and transmitted despite confusion, rumors, and the pressure of live broadcasting. Between editorial decisions, technical constraints, and civic responsibility, the film reveals the inner workings of journalism when confronted with the extreme.

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