Chad’s journalists protest online media ban, opposition calls for boycott of 29 Dec. election

The online media journalists in Chad are voicing dissatisfaction over the authorities’ refusal to respect the Supreme Court’s decision for a ban on the broadcasting of audiovisual content to be lifted while opposition is calling for a boycott of the country’s legislative and local elections scheduled for 29 December.
With Chad’s legislative and local elections looming, a heated debate is unfolding about its transparency and legitimacy, with the opposition arguing that “presenting candidates in these pre-determined elections is merely legitimizing a power structure that seeks to be validated. Also journalists reporting for online media platforms have joined the outcry against what Bello Bakary Mana, the president of the Association of Online Media of Chad, called a deliberate attempt by the country’s High Media and Audiovisual Authority (HAMA) to silence the local online media. The HAMA officials have refused to lift the ban accusing journalists of reposting videos without the content producers’ permission but journalists assert they are being silenced from reporting on critical election issues before the elections.
Journalists in Chad say by banning online audiovisual content, HAMA wants to silence online media that have been reporting that Deby’s Patriotic Salvation Movement, or MPS, wants to use the polls to consolidate its grip on power at all costs. Several hundred online reporters assisted by local radio, print and TV journalists gathered for a protest in the capital N’djamena to let the world know that the media is being silenced in Chad. “They will continue protesting until HAMA stops threatening journalists and lifts what he calls its illegal 4 December ban on the broadcast of online audiovisual content,” Mana said. While the ruling party of President Mahamat Idriss Deby is actively campaigning, with festive rallies, door-to-door visits, and market tours, the opposition has urged the public to reject the upcoming vote, calling it an “electoral coup.”