In Mali, Joliba TV has no longer broadcast since Tuesday November 26 and the withdrawal of its license came into force. The High Communication Authority of Mali (HAC) notified the private Malian channel of its decision on Thursday. A sanction taken at the request of the Burkinabè regulatory body, the Superior Council of Communication (CSC), which did not appreciate a broadcast during which comments were made questioning the veracity of a supposed foiled coup in Burkina Faso. The HAC therefore inflicted the most severe blow on Joliba TV, forcing it to cease its activities. But a last-ditch mediation attempted by the Mali Press House, which brings together the country’s journalists’ organizations, is still in progress. Yesterday at the end of the day, in a press release, the Maison de la presse recalled that the cutting of the signal “ does not hinder the free appeal procedure and the mediation of the commission »
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It’s the black screen waiting for the white smoke. Hoping so, in any case, for the employees of Joliba TV, who are crossing their fingers that the HAC reverses its decision. Monday, a delegation from the Maison de la presse du Mali pleaded the cause of Joliba TV to the High Authority of Communication, denouncing an excessive sanction, undermining media pluralism and freedom of expression.
An honorable way out for all
After threatening to ask all Malian media to rebroadcast the incriminated program, the Maison de la presse is now playing appeasement. The ball is in the court of the HAC, which promised, Monday, November 25, a rapid response, and which could seek an honorable way out for all. Requested, the HAC did not wish to respond to RFI.
A risky standoff
The regulatory body and the Malian transitional authorities also know that the standoff with the profession, which has mobilized as one, is potentially risky. Malian political parties have also denounced, almost all of them, the closure of Joliba TV, considered a serious democratic setback. As for the author of the controversial remarks which earned this sanction on Joliba TV, politician Issa Kaou N’Djim, he has been in prison for two weeks and will be tried in February for ” public offense committed against a foreign head of state “.
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