24-07-2023, 12:39 PM
(23-07-2023, 08:17 PM)lookoutwales Wrote: Very sad indeed. Used to watch Het Journaal quite a bit when BVN (a Dutch version of TV5) used to simulcast VRT’s 1pm & 7pm news and Martine was very much their figurehead.Martine was Het Journaal. It's difficult to overstate just how famous and respected she was in Flanders. The closest equivalent in the UK would probably be Trevor McDonald.
A very cool, calm and reassuring presence on air.
Fortuitously, the latter part of one of her first bulletins from May 1978 exists - don’t know if it’s still the case now but potential journalists had to pass an intensive exam as part of the application process to join (what was) the BRT.
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Her last ever Journaal (30.11.2020) was extended to pay this tribute - just over two million viewers tuned in, the most watched news programme in VRT’s history.
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Welterusten, Martine.
The journalist's exam was abolished at some point in the 90s. I'm quite sure Martine's successor as head anchor, Wim De Vilder, was part of the very last cohort who took it.