Burkina Faso: Authorities suspended activities of several foreign media outlets
The Supreme Council of Communications in Burkina Faso suspended the work of the French Le Monde and Ouest France, and the British The Guardian, in addition to the German Deutsche Welle and the French TV5 Monde channels, until further notice, against the backdrop of the publication and broadcast of a Human Rights Watch report accusing the country’s army of launching attacks on civilians.
Last Thursday, the same council announced the suspension of access to the British Broadcasting Corporation BBC and Voice of America radio from the country’s territory, for a period of two weeks, for the same reason related to broadcasting news about the report that accuses the army of “executing at least 223 civilians, including 56 children” on February 25th.
The Council considered that the content published by these media institutions was tendentious against the Burkina Faso army, and that it contained misleading information that would tarnish its reputation.
Burkina Faso’s Minister of Communications, Rimtalba, Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo, announced that Ouagadougou strongly rejects and condemns such baseless accusations, adding in a statement issued on Saturday that there is an ongoing investigation into the facts.
