Burkina Faso suspends France 24 for interview with jihadi

DAKAR, Senegal — Burkina Faso’s military government has suspended French broadcaster France 24 for interviewing the head of a jihadist rebel group, a government spokesman said Monday.

The broadcast of French 24 programs will be blocked throughout Burkina Faso. This is because the agency interviewed the leader of a group affiliated with Al Qaeda, Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo said in a statement.

‗It is regrettable that the government discovered two weeks ago an interview with the ‘Al Qaeda chief of the Islamic Maghreb’ on France 24, part of the French media Monde Group. It calls into question the ethics that govern the professional practice of journalism on France 24 without being open to dissent,” he said.

By explaining the views of the leaders of the rebel group, France 24 acted as a communication agency for the jihadists and gave them room to justify their actions, he said.

On March 6, France 24 broadcast an exclusive interview with Algerian Abu Obeida Yousef Al-Aanabi, leader of AQIM, an umbrella group of Islamist extremist groups operating in the Sahel region. under the Sahara Desert. However, France 24 has decided not to broadcast, interviewed journalist Wasim Nasr told his Associated Press.

The only mention of Burkina Faso in an interview that took a year to make a deal challenges al-Qaeda chiefs to take responsibility for an attack in the Sahel region’s town of Sorhan that killed at least 160 people in June 2021. That was it. Nasr said.

“We try to talk to all parties. This is journalism,” he said.

In Burkina Faso, jihadi fighters linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have waged violent insurrection for seven years, killing thousands and displacing nearly two million from their homes. Violence has destabilized and divided the once-peaceful West African country, leading to two coups last year. Rights groups and residents say civil liberties have dwindled since a second coup that brought Captain Ibrahim Traoré to power in September.

The decision by Burkina Faso’s military junta not to allow France 24 to broadcast was followed by the government suspending French broadcaster Radio France Internationale for relaying “threatening messages” attributed to “terrorists,” according to a statement by the junta. It was handed down in less than four months. .

Earlier this month, Matthew Perelin, a Sahel consultant for the International Crisis Group, was arrested by authorities, detained for two days and questioned about his work, said Muriti Mutiga, the group’s Africa program director. It was the first time in ten years that a group of experts had been detained in Burkina Faso.

In December, the government expelled the country’s top UN officials and, weeks later, ordered France to recall its ambassador.

Sadiboo Marong, head of the sub-Saharan Africa office of Reporters Without Borders, said: “The suspension of France 24 is a demonstration of Burkina Faso’s authorities’ freedom of information and the right of citizens to freely access their news. It shows that it is possible to infringe on .

“The security crisis in Burkina Faso should not be used as an excuse to prevent journalists from covering the crisis in a responsible and independent manner,” he said. “We call on the authorities to reconsider their decision in the name of the public’s right to a pluralistic press.”