Since Sunday in Burkina Faso, we can no longer watch TV5 Monde or go to the newspaper’s news sites. The worldDeutsche Welle and the African press agency Apanews.
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This suspension was decided by the Superior Council of Communication (CSC), which considers that the report made by these media of an independent report of theNGO Human Rights Watch harms and discredits the Burkinabè army, accused by HRW of having committed certain abuses in several villages.
This is one more suspension, after RFI, France 24, the BBC or Voice of America, and a serious attack on the freedom of the press and to inform the media broadcasting in Burkina Faso, according to Noël Yao, president of the Union of Journalists of the Free African Press (UJPLA). “ The media outlets cannot be blamed for summarizing this credible organization’s report. And thereby decide, as the authorities of Burkina Faso are doing, to close these training and press organs. »
So, “ UJPLA, condemns, rejects and quickly demands that these measures be lifted so that the Burkinabé people can benefit from their right to information instead of manipulation and propaganda “, insists Noël Yao who denounces “ one step too far in the muzzling of all discordant voices in Burkina Faso “.
Read alsoBurkina Faso: the NGO Human Rights Watch accuses the army of having killed 223 villagers
“ Hiding information changes the reality on the ground »
The French daily The world through the voice of Anna Sylvestre-Treiner, editor-in-chief of Le Monde Afrique, also condemns this suspension. She points out that this sanction fell because the HRW report touches on a sensitive subject for the Burkinabe government. “ It is clear that this subject, the question of the abuses of his army against its own civilians, is an embarrassing subject for Captain Traoré who, you remember, took power in a coup d’état ago a year and a half promising to bring peace to his country in vain. »
For Anna Sylvestre-Treiner, the government is in a form of informational war, but cannot however hide the information from Burkinabè: “ I don’t think hiding information changes the reality on the ground. In recent weeks we have seen demonstrations in certain regions of Burkina Faso and this clearly shows that the Burkinabè are not fools. They know what’s going on. Even if we try to sanction media or censor them, I think that the reality exists and that a certain number of media, including The worldare determined to continue doing their job. »
London and Washington said on Monday that they were “ seriously concerned » with information about “ massacres of civilians » by the Burkina Faso army and called on the authorities to reverse the suspension of the media. Same position on these “ massacres » of the EU which recalls that “ freedom of expression and the right to information are essential elements of the rule of law “.
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