The public uproar in Belgium regarding the hoax the official state television RTBF planted on Wednesday ("the Dutch-speaking part of the country had declared independence, king and queen had to flee") - is certainly a good topic for media-educational purposes and reminds us - as every student of Media Studies 1.0 will know - of the 1938 radio broadcasting of H.G.Wells's "War of the Worlds" which caused chaos in the United States because people believed that Martians had invaded the country.
But back to Belgium. Remarkable is the momentum of such actions: The fake separatists played by actors who waved flags for the indepence of Flanders were joined after a short time by cheering real-life separatists.
There's more in the International Herald Tribune and a video on Youtube showing parts of the broadcast for speakers of French.
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