Burkina Faso Bans Foreign Media Over Human Rights Watch

International News From Burkina Faso – Burkina Faso Bans Foreign Media Over Human Rights Watch

Burkina Faso has blacklisted more international media outlets over their coverage of a report accusing its army of murdering 223 people.

According to the study, Human Rights Watch (HRW) believes the February massacre was carried out in revenge for villages assisting armed Islamists.

The West African nation’s military administration has refuted the allegations.

They’ve already suspended the BBC and Voice of America for covering the HRW release.

Burkina Faso is controlled by a military junta that took power in a coup in 2022, pledging to stop the Islamist insurgency.

However, the violence has escalated, with Islamist factions controlling more than one-third of Burkina Faso.

Burkina Faso’s communications regulator said on Sunday that broadcasts from the French network TV5Monde will be banned for two weeks, with access to its website barred, according to state-owned media.

The websites of German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW), French publications Le Monde and Ouest-France, British daily The Guardian, and African agency APA and Ecofin have all been blocked till further notice.

According to the non-governmental organization’s study, Burkina Faso’s military murdered 179 people in Soro and 44 others in adjacent Nondin, both in the north of the nation.

HRW described the suspected executions as the “worst army abuse” in over a decade.

Burkina Faso’s Communications Minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo issued a statement on Saturday, saying, “The government of Burkina Faso strongly rejects and condemns such baseless accusations.”

The minister was also surprised that “while this inquiry is underway to establish the facts and identify the authors, HRW has been able, with boundless imagination, to identify ‘the guilty’ and pronounce its verdict”.

On Monday, DW encouraged Burkina Faso’s authorities to reopen their website as soon as possible.

DW has proposed options for its Burkina Faso readership to access its website, such as using virtual private networks (VPNs).

International human rights organizations, including the European Union and the United Nations, have accused Burkina Faso of major human rights breaches in its struggle against Islamists, including the indiscriminate killing and forced disappearance of scores of people.

Supporters of the military junta have previously criticized the media for covering alleged crimes, claiming that the coverage is intended to undermine the morale of Burkina Faso’s armed forces.

Burkina Faso’s media regulator issued a statement on Thursday warning all media outlets not to broadcast the news, threatening punishment, state-owned media said.

A BBC spokeswoman responded to the authorities’ block on its programming, saying: “The suspension diminishes the BBC’s capacity to reach audiences with independent and factual news. We will continue to report on the region in the public’s interest, without fear or favour.”

Burkina Faso Bans Foreign Media Over Human Rights Watch

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