African, int’l news outlets call on Burkinabe and Malian junta to respect press freedom

A group of 30 African and international news organizations and rights groups have joined in an appeal for press freedom in Mali and Burkina Faso, calling on the authorities of these two countries and the international community to put an end to the pressure and threats against national and foreign journalists.

The signatories of the open letter, including many news outlets from Burkina Faso and France, and organizations such as Burkina Faso Journalists Association, Federation of African Journalists, Human Rights Watch, and International Press Institute, urge the transitional governments in Burkina Faso and Mali to respect their countries’ international commitments to uphold freedom of expression, in particular the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The open letter, which is addressed to the Burkinabe and Malian authorities as well as the wider international community, coincides with World Press Freedom Day on 3 May.

The signatories voice their concern about threats to freedom of expression and the press amid increasing pressure and death threats targeting national and foreign journalists in both countries. “Measures taken by the authorities in Burkina Faso, especially in recent months, are liable to undermine the public’s fundamental right to be informed,” they write in the collective text. “Freedom begins where ignorance ends,” the open letter adds, recalling the recent arrests and imprisonment of journalists and opinion leaders in Mali. The “establishment of a regime of terror,” to quote L’Observateur Paalga, the most widely read newspaper in Burkina Faso, “is accompanied by a wave of fake news flooding social media with falsehoods”, the signatories add, noting that “the victims of these ‘influencers’ are the people of Mali and Burkina Faso, who are deprived of a democratic debate.”