Radio Oméga is back on the airwaves in Burkina Faso, a month after its suspension, following the broadcast of an interview with the spokesperson for a movement in favor of the restoration of President Bazoum, in Niger. The director of the NGO RSF for West Africa, Sadibou Marong, reacts to the reestablishment of this media.
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If the director of Reporters Without Borders for West Africa, Sadibou Marong, welcomes the reestablishment of Radio Omega, he nevertheless believes that it “ should never have been suspended, even less by the government or its spokesperson who has no right to do so, because in Burkina there is a Superior Council of Communication which, in the eyes of the law, has the prerogative to put on notice or sanction a media outlet. »
“ The impression we have is that the radio has remained straight in its boots from the point of view of diversity and pluralism, and the independence of its activities and its coverage in general of everything happening in the country. And from this point of view, it could be a discordant path that would fundamentally bother the military authorities, hence this intention to silence her for a month. “,he adds.
To attest to the pluralism of Radio Omega, Sadibou Marong recalls that she was the first to give the floor to Captain Traoré shortly after the putsch of September 2022.
According to Sadibou Marong, the junta seeks to impose a narrative that is favorable to it, even though the population needs reliable, plural and independent information. In October 2022, a Radio Omega columnist, Alain Traoré, filed a complaint against X after receiving death threats. The radio had also been targeted by calls to burn down its premises.
Burkina Faso has a very lively and pluralistic media landscape, with 80 newspapers, 185 radio stations and around thirty television channels.
“ Burkina Faso has always been a country of press freedom. It is the country of Norbert Zongo, an investigative journalist. It is also the country where there is the International Festival of Freedom of Expression (Filep) which has become a kind of institution in the sub-region “, he wants to emphasize.
However, the state of press freedom has deteriorated from 2022, with the military coming to power. Burkina Faso has fallen in the Reporters Without Borders world ranking, going from 41st place in 2022 to 58th in 2023.
Read alsoBurkina Faso: Omega radio suspended after an interview with opponents of the Nigerien putschists