Authorities suspend Voice of America, extending censorship trend in Burkina Faso

Dakar, October 9, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Burkinabe authorities to lift the suspension of the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Voice of America (VOA), which is the latest outlet to be censored for discussing insecurity in the Sahel region.

“Instead of seeking to constrain the media available to people in their country, Burkinabe authorities should focus on finding missing journalists Serge Atiana Oulon, Adama Bayala, Kalifara Séré, and Alain Traoré,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, in New York. “The Burkinabe authorities must immediately lift the suspension of Voice of America and allow local media to work with international outlets without interference.”

The national communications regulator, the High Council of Communication (CSC), banned VOA from airing any programs for three months on Monday, October 7. The CSC cited a September 19 episode of its “Washington Forum” program, which covered militant attacks in the country and neighboring Mali. 

VOA spokesperson Nigel Gibbs told CPJ that the outlet complied with the ban but denied the CSC’s claims that statements made during their program justified terrorism.

The September 19 episode was synchronously broadcast by local private radio station Ouaga FM, leading the CSC to suspend, until further notice, the “synchronization” of foreign media broadcasts with local outlets, citing “recurrent broadcasting of information of a malicious and tendentious nature.”

CPJ’s calls and messages to Gildas Ouédraogo, the CSC’s director of communications, and government spokesperson Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo requesting comment went unanswered.

Burkinabe authorities have suspended at least five international media outlets over their coverage of security issues since Ibrahim Traoré took power in a September 2022 military coup. The CSC suspended VOA for two weeks in April 2024 for reporting on alleged abuses by the Burkinabe army.