Media minister Dalle also critical of VRT series ‘Fire’: “Not the kind of behavior we want to portray to young people” | TV

The FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) philosophy works according to the slogan ‘don’t work for your money, but make your money work for you’. But according to critics, the documentary series, which has been available on VRT MAX since Monday and gives the floor to seven witnesses, presents young people with a misleading picture of investing. That was also the criticism of the stock market watchdog FSMA. They believe that the series “gives young people a wrong and one-sided picture of what investing is”.

Media Minister Benjamin Dalle takes that criticism seriously. In a response, he expresses his “great concern” about the series. “Getting rich quickly while taking huge and often irresponsible financial risks is not the kind of behavior or practice we want to propagate to the younger generation,” says Dalle.

According to the CD&V minister, such “controversial themes” can certainly be discussed by the public broadcaster. “But that presupposes a nuanced picture. It is especially important to provide sufficient explanation by experts or, for example, to show stories of where things went wrong. In this case, I have the impression that this balance has been lost,” says Dalle.

The CD&V minister acknowledges that the VRT decides autonomously about its programming and that politicians should not interfere. But the media minister also finds it difficult to ignore the criticism of the FSMA. That is why he asks the VRT to “see how this (the criticism of the FSMA, ed.) can be met”.

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