By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Condemnations have greeted the kicking out of two French journalists by the authorities in Burkina Faso as the country has been accused of attempting to stifle freedom of speech with an escalating crackdown on foreign media organisations.
This comes days after the military junta in the West African country blocked RFI radio and television channel France 24, accusing them of being the mouthpiece of a terror group after the TV aired an interview authorities found offensive.
The authorities expelled the two French journalists working for newspapers Le Monde and Liberation, the two newspapers announced on Sunday,
According to Liberation, its correspondent Agnès Faivre and Le Monde’s Sophie Douce arrived in Paris early on Sunday after they were summoned separately for questioning by the military authorities on Friday and later notified of their expulsion.
The two are “journalists of perfect integrity, who worked in Burkina Faso legally, with valid visas and accreditations … We strongly protest against these absolutely “unjustified expulsions”” Liberation said in an editorial statement on its website.
Liberation said a recent investigation by Faivre “into the circumstances in which a video was filmed showing children and adolescents being executed in a military barracks by at least one soldier” had “evidently strongly displeased the junta”.
“These restrictions on freedom of information are unacceptable and the sign of a power that refuses to allow its actions to be questioned,” it said.
There was no statement from the authorities in Burkina Faso.
“These two expulsions mark a new major setback in the freedom to inform on the situation in Burkina Faso,” Le Monde Director Jérôme Fenoglio on its part said in a statement.
Douce’s reporting “obviously ended up seeming unbearable to the regime of Ibrahim Traoré, transition president for six months,” he said.
Relations between both countries have deteriorated sharply since Burkina Faso’s military seized power in a coup last October.
In March, the Burkina military government scrapped a 1961 accord with France on military assistance. It has since ordered the French ambassador and troops to withdraw from the country
Burkina Faso is one of several West African countries and former French colonies battling violent groups that took root in neighbouring Mali and have spread across the region over the past decade.
