Burkina Faso expels two journalists working for French newspapers | Freedom of the Press Information

The expulsions are the most recent crackdown towards French media by the army ruling the West African nation.

Burkina Faso has expelled two French journalists working for newspapers Le Monde and Liberation, the 2 newspapers stated on Sunday, accusing the authorities of searching for to stifle freedom of speech with an escalating crackdown on overseas media.

Liberation stated its correspondent Agnès Faivre and Le Monde’s Sophie Douce arrived in Paris early on Sunday after they had been summoned individually for questioning by the army authorities on Friday and later notified of their expulsion.

The 2 are “journalists of good integrity, who labored in Burkina Faso legally, with legitimate visas and accreditations … We strongly protest towards these completely unjustified expulsions,” Liberation stated in an editorial assertion on its web site.

There was no assertion from the authorities in Burkina Faso. The French overseas ministry didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from Reuters.

Relations between Paris and Ouagadougou have deteriorated sharply since Burkina Faso’s army seized energy in a coup final October.

In March, the Burkina army authorities scrapped a 1961 accord with France on army help. It has since ordered the French ambassador and troops to withdraw from the nation and suspended broadcasts by France’s RFI radio and tv channel France 24.

Crackdown on media

“These two expulsions mark a brand new main setback within the freedom to tell on the scenario in Burkina Faso,” Le Monde Director Jérôme Fenoglio stated in a press release.

Douce’s reporting “clearly ended up seeming insufferable to the regime of Ibrahim Traoré, transition president for six months,” he stated.

Liberation stated a current investigation by Faivre “into the circumstances during which a video was filmed exhibiting youngsters and adolescents being executed in a army barracks by a minimum of one soldier” had “evidently strongly displeased the junta”.

“These restrictions on freedom of data are unacceptable and the signal of an influence that refuses to permit its actions to be questioned,” it stated.

Burkina authorities spokesman Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo had criticised the article as “manipulations disguised as journalism to tarnish the picture of the nation”.

Media rights organisation Reporters With out Borders alleged the army was concentrating on the media to “camouflage its abuses”.

Burkina Faso is one in every of a number of West African international locations and former French colonies battling violent teams that took root in neighbouring Mali and have unfold throughout the area over the previous decade.

Hundreds of individuals have been killed and greater than two million displaced throughout the Sahel area south of the Sahara regardless of the presence of overseas troops, together with from France.

Frustrations over authorities’ failure to revive safety have spurred anti-French sentiment and helped result in two army takeovers in Burkina Faso and two in Mali since 2020.