The public university of Koudougou (in northern Burkina Faso) bears the name of Norbert Zongo in memory of the Burkinabe journalist who was assassinated in 1998 while investigating the death of the personal driver of François Compaoré, younger brother of former President Blaise Campaoré . One of his legacies was the bimonthly publication L’Indépendant, which years later was renamed l’Événement and is currently published in the Burkinabe capital of Ouagadougou. Its director, Atiana Serge Oulon, reiterates that the context for the practice of journalism in the country today is “hostile” but that “we must keep working to offer fair information and work with verifiable sources so society can move forward.” .
“I used to travel within the country, now I hardly move,” says Oulon in the report “In the shoes of a journalist in the Sahel”, presented by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) this Monday in Dakar, about the difficulties for whistleblowers this part of the world. An informant in Burkina Faso can no longer go to where the events are taking place. Since June 2022, civilians and journalists have been banned from traveling to the province of Soum (border with Mali) and the forests classified as “areas of military interest” between Pama and W National Park in the east of the country. “We have to be more professional than ever with information so as not to give rise to criticism,” adds Oulon, who works tirelessly and has a phone that rings every minute.
I used to travel inland, now I hardly move
Atiana Serge Oulon, journalist, director of l’Événement
Burkina Faso ranks 41st in press freedom, ahead of Italy, according to the Reporters Without Borders 2022 ranking, and has 80 newspapers and 185 radio stations. A figure that ranks it as one of the African countries with the greatest presence and diversity of media and the best positioning in the Sahel, the semi-desert band that crosses the continent from east to west. Although this photo has changed. Spanish journalists David Beriain and Roberto Fraile were killed by a terrorist group in April last year while covering poaching in eastern Burkina Faso. Local journalists work every day under pressure and threats that have intensified since the rule of a military junta led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré following a September 30, 2022 coup.
Last week, the government went a step further by suspending the broadcast of the French-language channel France24 and expelling two correspondents from Liberation and Le Monde. “The chain does not have the rights to broadcast this program and we have asked for it to be hidden,” reads the message broadcast by France24 since Monday. The decision to cut the signal came after jihadism specialist Wassim Nasr released a live analysis of responses he received following an interview with Abu Obeida Youssef al-Aanabi, the jihadist leader of the Support Group for Islam and Muslims ( JNIM, for its acronym in Arabic), associated with Al Qaeda. Despite the fact that he did not circulate the word or verbatim answers, Burkinabe government spokesman Emmanuel Ouedraogo said, explained in a statement that France24 gave terrorism a space of “legitimacy” and was therefore suspended.
The military junta that rules Burkina Faso today is gaining popularity among the population, while at the same time increasingly controlling the media space
Two days later, correspondents for French media Liberation and Le Monde were expelled from the country after publishing an article linking the Burkinabe army to the executions of children and adolescents. According to Liberation, the national secret services interrogated the two journalists for an hour. When they got home, they were visited by a lieutenant who gave them 24 hours to leave the country. Neither of them signed the publication for which they were expelled. In addition, other international journalists have been called to “exchange” meetings by government agencies to speak in their words and receive warnings about their work in the field. In his opinion, what the media has does not correspond to reality. And it’s not the first time this has happened in the Sahel country. In December, the government stopped Radio France Internationale (RFI) from broadcasting, blaming it for “the demotivation of thousands of Burkinabe people mobilized in defense of the fatherland” after it broadcast an “intimidation message” from a “terrorist leader”.
Along with Mali, Niger and Chad, Burkina Faso is one of the countries involved in a cross-border conflict between non-state armed groups and the national armies and their allies. The first violent incidents occurred in Burkina Faso in 2015 and since then it has lived in a spiral of violence. At least 10,000 people died and two million were forced to flee their homes because of attacks by terrorist groups linked to Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
War Communications
In this context, the military junta that now rules the country is gaining popular popularity while increasing control of the media space through public television (RTB) and social networks, with a single story: the state’s offensive against terrorism began.
This week, public television (RTB) aired some videos taken by the army, showing drones firing at what they say is “an armed terrorist group on the move, consisting of about twenty motorcycles.” The same videos have been circulated on WhatsApp and social networks such as Facebook, where most of the comments encourage the army and unconditionally support the President.
The RSF report on press freedom in the Sahel points out that the patriotic mandate of the military juntas “encourages the development of contract journalism and an omertá phenomenon [ley del silencio] about certain sensitive issues. Local organizations have also expressed concern about restrictions on freedom of expression. In a statement to the AFP news agency at the end of March, the Burkinabe movement for human and international rights said it was “dismayed at the kidnapping and forced recruitment” of Boukaré as a Volunteer for Defense of the Fatherland (VDP). Ouédraogo, leader of the Appel de Kaya movement, after publicly criticizing the government for the lack of security in the city of Kaya. A few days later, Head of State Ibrahim Traoré from the same city declared that “a person in charge of civil society [sin mencionar a Ouédraogo] he had been recruited to join the VDP, a popular counter-terrorism militia established in 2020 with currently at least 90,000 registered volunteers. After these statements, pictures of the activist in uniform and with a gun began to circulate on social networks.
No local journalist dares to investigate Wagner’s presence
Reporters Without Borders report
The All Eyes on Wagner (AEOW) project, which monitors Wagner’s paramilitary activities “Russian mercenaries increasingly present on the African continent”, has already warned that the “Burkkine media ecosystem” has been manipulated by “fake” social media accounts , which professionals create and distribute -Russian content. Reporters Without Borders Africa director Sadibou Marong stresses that “from now on we must learn to examine the Wagner militia, which is exerting an increasingly noticeable influence in the information space of the Sahel.”
According to the NGO, pro-Russian reports in Mali began appearing on social media at the same time Wagner’s mercenaries were stationed in the country in December 2021, after interviewing professionals working in the Sahel. “The media are caught between the terrorists’ sword and the wall of the military junta and their Russian partners,” says one of the journalists.
Although the RSF report warns that journalists’ working conditions in the region have deteriorated over the past decade – five journalists have been killed and two others have recently disappeared – resilience strategies are being developed to continue working professionally. In the midst of the information chaos, there are projects such as Mali Check, Africa Check or DésinfoxTchad, born with the mission of checking both information published by “political authorities” and content circulated on social networks.
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