The military authorities in Burkina Faso are tightening their grip on what people can see, hear, and know.
On May 5, Burkina Faso’s media regulator ordered the suspension of French broadcaster TV5Monde, accusing it of “disinformation” and “apology of terrorism” in its reporting on Islamist armed groups in Burkina Faso and neighboring Mali. The action is the latest targeting the channel that was previously suspended twice in 2024 and remains off the air in Mali following similar allegations.
Reaching millions across more than 200 countries, TV5Monde is one of the most widely watched international channels on the continent. Its recent coverage has highlighted escalating insecurity in Mali following the April 25 coordinated attacks by an Al Qaeda-linked armed group and separatist rebels, and grave violations by government security forces in Burkina Faso including Human Rights Watch findings of war crimes and crimes against humanity by all sides.
The ban is not an isolated act: it reflects a broader campaign by Burkina Faso’s military rulers to silence dissent. Since taking power in a 2022 coup, the junta has suspended independent media outlets, dismantled civil society groups, curtailed political pluralism, and pursued legal action against critics. It has intimidated, unlawfully conscripted, forcibly disappeared, and arbitrarily detained journalists, political opponents, civil society members, and judges, shrinking the country’s civic space. The prominent investigative journalist Atiana Serge Oulon was forcibly disappeared in June 2024, allegedly tortured, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Following this junta-created media vacuum, government control over public discourse and state-sponsored misinformation has surged. “Burkina Faso has become a propaganda machine,” said Alioune Tine, a renowned human rights activist who founded the think tank Afrikajom Center.
Pro-junta activists, including many organized in digital groups known as Rapid Communication Intervention Battalions, are flooding social media platforms with coordinated messaging that promotes a cult of personality around President Ibrahim Traoré, discredits critics, attacks perceived enemies, and seeks to undermine human rights organizations. Their messages often spread hate and violence and inflame ethnic tensions, particularly through widespread anti-Fulani rhetoric that falsely equates an entire community with Islamist armed groups, inciting hostility against Fulani people.
Burkinabè people have the right to receive information. Burkina Faso’s leaders should reverse the ban on TV5Monde, end the crackdown on independent media, and uphold the right to freedom of expression.
