Media watchdog denounces suspension of Radio France Internationale in Burkina Faso
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - Media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), on Tuesday condemned the suspension of Radio France Internationale (RFI) programmes by the Burkinabe authorities.
Citing "shortcomings" in the French broadcaster's coverage of the security situation in the West African country, the Burkinabe government on Saturday suspended its broadcast throughout the country until further notice.
"Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns this as a blow to the right to information" and stresses that millions of listeners are being deprived of their right to information.
"This suspension undermines freedom of information and the right of millions of Burkinabe to access it," said Sadibou Marong, director of RSF's Africa desk.
He added that "the security crisis that the country is going through should not be a pretext for preventing journalists from covering it responsibly and independently".
RSF called on the authorities to reverse their decision in the name of the public's right to plural sources of information.
The Burkinabe government has accused RFI of having relayed a "message of intimidation of the population attributed to a terrorist leader" and of having repeated, in a press review of 2 December, "false information" which said that the president of the transition, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, had claimed to have been the target of a coup attempt.
RFI's management has deplored the decision and protested against the "totally unfounded accusations that call into question the professionalism of its stations".
RSF noted that RFI's suspension comes in a context of "increasing threats against journalists in the country".
It pointed out that the former editor of the privately-owned newspaper L'Événement, Newton Ahmed Barry, received new death threats last weekend for denouncing the suspension.
Last June, the journalist was threatened in an audio recording posted on social networks, calling him a "terrorist" who "does not deserve to live".
On Monday, the government said it was "concerned about the verbal escalation and language observed in the public arena, ranging from calls for physical violence and the destruction of property to the murder of people".
It said that the latest cases involved Lamine Traoré of the Oméga Médias Group and Newton Ahmed Barry, who were targeted by violent comments posted on social networks.
"The government firmly and unambiguously condemns such comments, which foster intolerance and disunity, and calls on the perpetrators to restrain themselves and on public opinion to distance itself from such actions, which compromise social cohesion and our ability to live together," the statement said.
Burkina Faso is ranked 41st out of 180 countries in RSF's World Press Freedom Index for 2022.
-0- PANA TNDD/JSG/BBA/MA 6Dec2022
