Burkina Faso’s media regulator has suspended broadcasts from BBC Africa and Voice of America (VOA) over their coverage of a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report accusing the Burkinabè army of abuses against civilians.
Access to the websites and digital platforms of the BBC, VOA and Human Rights Watch have also been suspended within Burkina Faso.
HRW published a report on Thursday accusing the Burkina Faso military of executing at least 223 civilians on 25 February in the north of the country.
“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 two outlets will be suspended for two weeks.
The Superior Council for Communication (CSC) further warned all local media outlets against covering the Human Rights Watch report, threatening sanctions against those who do so.
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”.
In December 2023, the West African nation suspended French daily Le Monde, accusing it of biased reporting.
It also suspended three other international media outlets at varying times last year, including French-language magazine Jeune Afrique, French TV channel La Chaîne Info (LCI) and French state-owned media organisation France24.
