Sahel: press freedom increasingly threatened, journalists under pressure

Europe1 .fr 09:28, 04 April 2023

Covering the multiple crises in the Sahel freely is increasingly difficult for journalists, even more so since the military took power in several countries, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a report published on Monday. The Sahelian strip that crosses the continent from west to east threatens to become "Africa's largest no-news zone," RSF said in the grim report.

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The expulsion of correspondents of the French dailies Le Monde and Libération by the junta in Burkina Faso on Saturday further darkened the picture. RSF's report was written before their expulsion. Their expulsion "illustrates how the Burkinabe junta is following in the footsteps of the Malian junta," said Sadibou Marong, the head of RSF's sub-Saharan Africa desk.

The negative effect of Wagner's arrival

"We are afraid of a worst-case scenario where they (the leaders of Burkina) prevent any information (from going out) to the outside (...) But we also have confidence (in the fact) that this is a country where people resist historically" when it comes to press freedom, he said.

The local and international press has faced a "steady deterioration" of its working conditions over the past decade, says the report covering Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Chad, but also northern Benin, which faces similar security challenges.

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It describes journalists caught between the violence of jihadists and armed groups on the one hand, and restrictions, pressures, media suspensions and expulsions of foreign correspondents by the authorities on the other. He evokes the negative effect played by the arrival according to him of the Russian private security company Wagner in Mali.

"Five journalists were murdered, and six others were reported missing between 2013 and 2023," the report said. It reports that nearly 120 journalists were arrested or detained during this period, including 72 in Chad alone. It reports on attacks by jihadists and the disappearance of community radio stations, which were listened to because they did not adhere to their cause.

'Arbitrary attacks and arrests'

Vast areas have become inaccessible to journalists because they are too dangerous. The sources are "terrified" by the possibility of reprisals from armed groups, but also from the authorities. In Mali, Burkina Faso and Chad, the military has sought "to control the media through bans or restrictions, or even arbitrary attacks or arrests," according to the report.

RSF recalls the suspension of the French media France 24 and Radio France Internationale (RFI) in Mali and Burkina Faso. The expulsion or forced departure of foreign correspondents for lack of accreditation leaves the field "open to media favorable to the pro-Russian narrative defending the presence of Wagner's mercenaries in the region", which contributes "to the explosion of disinformation", deplores the NGO.

Deteriorating financial situation of the media

The pressure exerted on the press in the name of a "patriotic treatment" of information favors "journalism to orders", and self-censorship on sensitive subjects such as Wagner or the losses inflicted by the jihadists. They also fuel cyberbullying against dissenting voices, says RSF.

RSF also mentions the deterioration of the media's financial situation as a result of the crisis and the end of state subsidies. RSF offers some glimmers of hope. She evokes the mirror copy of the RFI and France 24 sites that she created to continue to capture them. She cites the creation of different modes of information collection and partnerships between media, as well as the development of factchecking.