US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting in Brussels

What happened

On Sunday evening, Brussels hosted the United States' Freedom 250 celebration in Parc du Cinquantenaire, a few hundred metres from the European Commission. The event was paid for by private companies and organised by the three American embassies in Brussels — to Belgium, the EU and NATO. Journalists from The European Correspondent went to cover it and put questions to senior politicians, including the US ambassador to Belgium, Bill White. After attempting to ask a question, they were pulled out of the event by police, had their IDs taken and were questioned, before the embassy instructed the police to escort them off the grounds entirely. The officers, they later learned, had been told one of them was an active threat.

A 250th birthday paid for by private companies

Under Donald Trump, the US is throwing parties to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, but these are not official, Congress-approved events: they are organised by a private company called Freedom 250. The Brussels edition is the only one of its kind in Europe. Dozens of European and American companies contributed around 3 million euros, and the three American embassies rented the park. The audience numbered several thousand short of the 8,000-plus the embassy had hoped for.

A few days before the event, the reporter published on Instagram that ambassador White had tacitly threatened an American and Belgian resident after that citizen urged the American country music band Zac Brown Band not to perform at the event. When the journalists reached the ambassador on Sunday evening, they asked him about it and filmed the exchange. A person who they assume was his press officer told them they were not allowed to ask any questions.

The detention and the open questions

About 20 minutes later, roughly eight Belgian police officers in plain clothes surrounded them and pulled them out of the event. When the journalists asked who they were, the officers physically pushed them, said they were police and ordered them to come along immediately. For about 15 minutes they confiscated IDs and questioned them about the publication's political leanings and how they had entered the event. Eventually the officers accepted they were journalists and disagreed with detaining them, saying they were just doing their job. Even after the officers recognised the mistake, the embassy said they were no longer permitted inside, and they were escorted out of an event they had been invited to attend as press.

The publication says much about the evening remains unclear: who paid how much, whether the police presence was paid for by the American organisers or by Belgian taxpayers, Asked for clarification the day after, Bill White confused the publication with the writer of the letter to the Zac Brown Band and called them both losers, refusing to give any explanation.