Belgium: Comments on political correctness

In a previous article I reported on two shooting incidents in Belgium involving Turks. It was interesting to see how the two shooting incidents were mentioned in two newspapers Het

Laatste Nieuws (HLN) and De Standaard (DS). De Standaard manages to look politically correct but still manages to give out the information.

For the first incident the two headlines were as follows:

HLN: Eight Turks arrested.. in shooting incident

DS: Eight people arrested.. in shooting incident

Supposedly the De Standaard headline is completely neutral. However, the rest of the article went on to mention that the people involved were Turks, in much the same way that Het Laatste Nieuws did.

For the second incident both headlines just mention a shooting incident in Sleepstraat in Ghent. I will therefore compare the two articles themselves.

HLN: In Sleepstraat in Ghent there were several shots fired around midnight during a shooting fight between people of Turkish origin ... The street is known in Ghent for its concentration of Turkish and Indian restaurants.

DS: In Sleepstraat in Ghent there were several shots fired around midnight during a shooting fight... The street is known in Ghent for its concentration of Turkish restaurants.

Again, supposedly De Standaard is completely neutral and is it certainly less obvious. But anybody who reads the article will get the hint - the shooters were Turks.

Is De Standaard more politically correct or just more hypocritical about it?