Malian media protest suppression of media freedom
Bamako, Mali (PANA) - Malian journalists are protesting orders by the transitional administration that they see as suppressing freedom of the press in the West African country.
In a protest meeting of media workers on Sunday, the Union of Free Radio and Television (URTEL) rejected these measures, stressing that "in the name of the fight against the coronavirus disease, we will never accept from anyone the questioning of essential freedoms, including freedom of the press".
They said one of the measures taken by the transitional authorities allows "the competent administrative authorities to take all appropriate measures to ensure control of the press and publications of all kinds, social networks, as well as radio and television broadcasts, film screenings and theatrical presentations".
This measure has provoked an outcry among journalists on all sides.
But in a statement, the Malian Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, explained that "contrary to some interpretations in the media, the instruction of 18 December 2020 is only an update of an instruction dating from 2015 declaring a state of emergency on the national territory".
In this respect, the Minister said that the instruction relating to the state of emergency in no way seeks to call into question any freedom whatsoever.
"It is not intended to prescribe new measures and has merely recalled the provisions of the laws and regulations," he stressed.
Last Friday, the Malian government took several measures to deal with the resurgence of coronavirus disease the country.
These measures include the closure, as of 19 December, of shopping streets and places of recreation, including bars, restaurants, discos until 4 January.
Others are the closure, until 10 January, of all public and private educational institutions, the introduction of a shift system in public services and the strengthening of COVID-19 barrier measures.
-0- PANA GT/JSG/BBA/MA 21Dec2020
