Burkina Faso imposes 3-month suspension on Voice of America

By Oumar Sankare

BAMAKO, Mali (AA) - Burkina Faso banned the radio broadcast of US-funded Voice of America (VOA) again, this time for three months after it aired a program that is “likely to undermine the morale of the Burkinabe and Malian Armed Forces,” according to a regulator.

The Washington Forum show broadcast the program Sept. 19 in synchronization with private radio Ouaga FM, where reporter Bagassi Koura described a Sept. 17 terror in Bamako as “courageous.” The report has “serious shortcomings,” according to the Superior Council of Communication (CSC) on Monday.

Koura noted that nothing is being done in terms of security by the armed forces during his analysis which cited an example of a terror attack Aug. 23 in Barsalogho.

Figures are put forward by the Washington Forum as the results of the Barsalogho attack had no credible reference to justify a so-called failure of the Transition authorities, said CSC.

The regulator challenged Ouaga FM, a local radio station, about its responsibility, urging it to exercise greater caution and rigor in its choice of programs.

The CSC suspended all synchronization of national media with international media until further notice.​​​​​​​

The communications regulator said that “recurrent dissemination of information of a malicious and tendentious nature by certain national audiovisual media within the framework of synchronization slots with international media” is wrong.

The information that is generally erroneous and or tending insidiously to glorify terrorism, is inconsistent with the law and negatively affects the current socio-security climate in Burkina Faso, it added.

The CSC suspended VOA and the BBC for two weeks in April for broadcasting a Human Rights Watch report that accused the army of abuses.

Burkina Faso also suspended France 24 for six months in June.

LCI, another French television channel, was suspended in July for two months.