Mali has banned French television channel France 2 from broadcasting packages for four months for ‘serious breaches’ of journalistic ethics aimed at ‘demoralising the troops and the population.’
Bamako says the French outlet broadcast a report that portrayed armed terrorist groups in the country as more powerful than government forces.
It also accused the channel of attempting to ‘retroactively justify’ the presence in Mali of French troops that operated against jihadists until 2022.
Since booting the French out, Mali – along with Burkina Faso and Niger – has moved to curtail French influence by suspending Paris-based media outlets. All three Sahelian states have banned France 24 and Radio France International. Mali has also banned French-funded NGOs.
In a particularly controversial case involving France 24 in Burkina Faso, the channel aired an interview in March 2023 with the head of al-Qaeda’s North African wing. It’s that interview that prompted Ouagadougou to pull the plug on the station.
