The organization says the region “is dangerously becoming a zone devoid of independent journalists and reliable information.”
3 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders (SRF) has denounced on Monday the increase in dangers for journalists working in the Sahel countries and has warned that the region is becoming a “zone without information” due to the deterioration of the conditions for the practice of the profession in this part of Africa.
RSF has indicated in a report entitled ‘In the shoes of a journalist in the Sahel’ -published two weeks after the release of journalist Olivier Dubuis, kidnapped in 2021 in Mali- that in the last ten years five journalists have been assassinated in the region –among them the Spaniards David Beriain and Roberto Fraile–, while two have disappeared and hundreds more have received threats that have caused them to be unable to carry out their trade without putting their lives at risk.
Thus, he has highlighted that the reporters who work in the Sahel are facing radical armed groups that are increasingly present and that have been responsible for the murder and kidnapping of journalists, as well as authorities established after coups d’état that have imposed various restrictions. . In addition, they coexist in some countries with the presence of militiamen from the Wagner Group, owned by an oligarch close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The immense joy that the recent release of Olivier Dubois has caused us, on March 20, cannot, however, hide the growing difficulties that journalists working in the Sahel are facing”, highlighted the director of RSF Sub-Saharan Africa Office, Sadibou Marong.
“This part of the African continent is dangerously becoming a zone devoid of independent journalists and reliable information, where self-censorship is the norm. To prevent the Sahel from becoming a zone without information, this report calls on states of the region. A strong reaction is required so as not to deprive 110 million Sahelians of their fundamental right to be informed”, he stressed.
Thus, Marong has emphasized that “the intensification of attacks by armed groups has not ceased to restrict the space that journalists have access to gather information and to weaken the media.” “These, especially the community radios, widely listened to in the Sahel, have been destroyed for the simple fact of giving voice to a public that does not sympathize with the cause of the armed groups, or for broadcasting music instead of preaching,” he detailed. she.
“In Chad, Burkina Faso and Mali, the deterioration of the media situation has been aggravated by the rise to power of the military juntas. Their pressures and their patriotic mandates favor the development of commissioned journalism and a phenomenon of ‘ omertá’ around certain sensitive issues”, he said, before explaining that “the suspension of international media and the expulsion of foreign journalists, clear symptoms of the will to silence critical voices, leave the way free for media favorable to the pro-Russian narrative, defending the presence of Wagner’s mercenaries in the region, and contributing to the rise of disinformation”.
Marong has further argued that “the use of laws regulating cyberspace and Internet shutdowns have also greatly harmed journalism and press freedom”, before pointing out that “in this hostile environment, fear of reprisals encourages self-censorship “. “Hiding information becomes the norm. The challenge for many media outlets is already existential: how to continue reporting, when the exercise of free and quality journalism is compromised?”, She has recounted.
For this reason, he has outlined that “this difficult and complex situation of journalism in the Sahel requires a general mobilization” and has pointed out the “imperative need, even in a context of insecurity, armed attacks, reprisals from the republican armies and opinions of the juntas military, to protect the rights of journalists, and, in particular, their right of access to information, in the interest of the population of the Sahel”.
MURDERS AND “MAXIMUM RISK” OF KIDNAPPING
The report states that since the execution in 2013 of journalist Ghislaine Dupont and technician Claude Verlon, both from Radio France Internationale in Mali, three journalists have been murdered in the region: Obed Nangbatna, from the national television channel Télé Chad, in 2019; and Beriain and Fraile, executed in 2021 while preparing a documentary on poaching in eastern Burkina Faso.
It also points to “a maximum risk of kidnapping” and recalls that, after the release of Dubois, the Malian journalists Hamadoun Nialobouly and Moussa M’Bana Dicko, kidnapped in Mali, are still missing. RSF has asserted that in this region journalists are considered potential bargaining chips, although one of the journalists was kidnapped because of the content of his articles.
The organization also highlighted “an increasingly reduced space to cover” because more and more areas are prohibited or difficult to access due to the increase in dangerous areas and the administrative obstacles imposed by the authorities, which make it increasingly difficult to obtain credentials and permissions to be able to cover the information in these areas.
Along these lines, it also indicates that there has been an increase in the expulsions of journalists and the suspension of international media, especially in Mali and Burkina Faso, while journalists also face “the threat of information mercenaries”, given the existence of a boom in disinformation in the Sahel, especially through social networks.
On the other hand, it points to “direct” editorial pressure from the authorities and the end of “protective laws” due to the erosion of legislative advances between 1990 and 2010 to structure the media sector and protect journalists. In response, local initiatives against disinformation have sprung up, while groups of journalists cover news in local languages through their own networks.
Lastly, RSF has reminded the countries of the Sahel that the fight against terrorism should not be a reason to violate the right to information and freedom of the press and has asked the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) to develop a code of conduct to protect journalists in conflict zones.
