Burkina Faso’s government has slammed a two-week suspension on the programs of BBC Afrique and Voice of America (VOA) for airing a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report which accused the country’s soldiers of serious abuses against civilians.
Access to the websites and digital platforms of BBC, VOA, and Human Rights Watch is also suspended within Burkina Faso.
“Accordingly, the BBC and VOA, through their correspondents in Burkina Faso, were instructed by telephone to immediately stop rebroadcasting the offending programme on all their platforms,” state-owned news agency Agence d’Information du Burkina (AIB) reported on Thursday.
The Superior Council for Communication (CSC) subsequently threatened any local media platforms that amplified the report with sanctions.
VOA said in an article published on Friday that it “stands by its reporting about Burkina Faso and intends to continue to fully and fairly cover activities in the country”.
The Human Rights Watch published a report on Thursday accusing the Burkina Faso military of summarily executing at least 223 civilians on 25 February in two villages north of the country.
In December 2023, the West African nation suspended French daily Le Monde accusing it of biased reporting.
It has already suspended three other international media outlets this year, including French-language magazine Jeune Afrique, French TV channel La Chaîne Info (LCI), and French state-owned media organisation France24.