Burkina Faso suspends French international station TV5 for six months

Burkina Faso on Tuesday suspended French broadcaster TV5 for six months for spreading "disinformation", authorities said.

The communications regulator (CSC) accused the channel of spreading "malicious insinuations" and "disinformation" about the country's transitional government.

The regulator had earlier suspended French newspaper Le Monde, British publication The Guardian and German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW).

In its latest move Tuesday, it also hit TV5 with a fine of 50 million CFA francs ($82,000).

The CSC criticised the broadcaster for this week hosting Newton Ahmed Barry, a critic of the military regime who led the election commission from 2014 to 2021.

TV5 was already suspended on April 28 for two weeks, after broadcasting a report by Human Rights Watch that accused the military of killing civilians.

Multiple foreign news outlets – the majority French – have been shuttered temporarily or indefinitely since Captain Ibrahim Traore seized power in the West African country in a September 2022 coup.

(AFP)


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