Dakar, Senegal – (AFP) – Mali’s junta has shut down a local private broadcaster after its fellow military-run ally Burkina Faso complained about its coverage, the station told AFP Friday.
Mali’s high communication authority withdrew Joliba TV News’s licence with effect from November 26, a channel official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The move follows a complaint lodged against the channel on November 12 by Burkina Faso’s communication authority over comments made by Malian political figure Issa Kaou N’Djim about Burkina Faso’s own junta.
Having previously supported Malian coup leader General Assimi Goita before distancing himself, N’Djim was detained in the capital Bamako on November 13 under pressure from its neighbour.
He is due to stand trial for “publicly offending a foreign head of state” on December 23.
The regulator charges N’Djim with having called into question attempts to “destabilise” Burkina Faso by claiming they were “nothing more than a set-up”, as well as an “attack on a foreign head of state”.
Burkina Faso’s junta regularly reports cases of attempted destabilisation, leading to the arrest of several officers and civilians, most recently in September.
The two west African states have been ruled by military regimes since coups in 2020 and 2022, joining with junta-led Niger to form the confederation the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
Both military-led governments have taken repressive measures against the press, suspending a number of foreign media outlets and imprisoning or silencing journalists or critics.
© Agence France-Presse
