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Book Banned in Belgium
04/20/2009 :: Belgian book publishers and even the major book stores boycott books written by Vlaams Belang authors or people perceived to be close to the party. Koen Dillen, a VB member of the European Parliament, is an expert on French politics and has already published many books on the subject. He does so under a pseudonym. Recently, using the alias Vincent Gounod, he wrote an authoritative biography (634 pages) of François Mitterrand. The book was published by a company in the Netherlands, and was also in the bookstores in Belgium until… the Belgian media discovered who the real author was. Overnight, stores in Belgium removed the book from the shelves and Belgian papers refused to review it.
However, Dillen’s book on Mitterrand had already been reviewed on the Belgian state radio VRT, where it was hailed as “outstanding.” After the identity of the author was revealed the VRT removed the review from its website.
Contrary to Belgium, Dillen’s book is not being boycotted in the Netherlands. It received abundant praise in the Dutch media, including the liberal NRC Handelsblad, the most influential newspaper in the Netherlands, which called it “a gem of a political biography,” and the leftist Groene Amsterdammer.
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