BBC VOWS TO KEEP UP REPORTING AFTER NIGER SUSPENDS RADIO FOR THREE MONTHS
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Following a three-month suspension of BBC radio by the military junta in Niger, the BBC announced on Friday that it would continue to report on the Sahel.
It is the most recent in a long line of Western media outlets that have been banned by military dictatorships in western and central Africa.
The Niger government said that BBC radio would be shut down “with immediate effect,” claiming that the British network was disseminating “erroneous information likely to destabilise social peace and undermine the morale of the troops” on Thursday.
According to the BBC, popular BBC shows, including those in the Hausa language, are aired in Niger through local radio partners, reaching around 2.4 million people by 2024.
“This directly impacts our ability to reach audiences with much-needed accurate and impartial news,” a BBC spokesperson said of the ban.
“We stand by our journalism and we will continue to report on the region without fear or favour.”
Since seizing power in a July 2023 coup, the military government has banned several Western media outlets, including Radio France Internationale (RFI) and France 24.
Niger also announced on Thursday it was “filing a complaint” against RFI.
On Wednesday, both the BBC and RFI reported that jihadists had killed 90 soldiers and over 40 civilians in Chatoumane, in the western Tera region bordering Burkina Faso teeming with armed fighters.
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Niger’s junta dismissed reports of the attack and deaths as “baseless assertions” and a “campaign of intoxication”.
Although AFP was unable to verify those numbers from an independent local source, a Western security source told AFP that 90 to 100 people died in Tuesday’s attack.
AFP
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