The head of Belgian police, Fernand Koekelsberg, has had some rough weeks. He has been accused of promoting his personal assistant, to the level of a personal media-advisor. (Some say they even have a relationship that her assistance is a bit more personal than you would expect….) I won’t bother you with the full details but there are rumours that Koekelberg broke some rules by appointing him. Obviously this is delicate when you are the head of a police force.

Today, on the day when there was only one news-item planned: the election of a new president in the United States. Koekelberg still made the headlines with something you would like to keep out of the news.
Weekly Magazine Humo is Belgium’s second largest weekly magazine. Every week they have a double satirical page which is called ‘Black Hole of the world’.

The spread has a newspaper like lay-out and brings invented news, with absurd articles and pictures. Satire. Humo often stars celebrities on these pages, this week they feature Fernand Koekelberg and his PA, as you can see on the pictures below. (picture by @Andhi)

Edit: court has decided that the images can’t be shown anymore. Anywhere… I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.
I can imagine he wasn’t ‘amused’ with these fake pictures. Fernand Koekelberg decided to react andgo to court and the issue of the magazine can’t be sold anymore. Humo will have to pay a fine for every magazine that’s being sold. In his mind Koekelberg won but what did he loose?

He lost a chance to let everything pass while everyone is looking at the elections in the United States. Seriously. The radio news today opened with: “We have only one news- item” an hour later his pictures are being discussed nationwide. The magazine is also has subscribers so they already received the magazine. The pictures he didn’t want to appear, are now all over the internet. There will be discussions about free speech and free press in other media as well.

Sometimes you just have to step back and weigh your options. What can I win, what can I loose. That’s it. If you feel that you start to loose sight of the bigger picture, turn to someone who can, maybe his personal assistant media-relations advisor is not that person.