The suspension of programming for the news outlets France 24 and RFI in Niger, where the elected president Mohamed Bazoum was deposed by a coup d’état, was denounced “very firmly” by France on Thursday.
Journalists from AFP in Niamey reported that France 24 and Radio France International (RFI) have been unavailable since Thursday afternoon. According to a senior Nigerian source who spoke to AFP, the signals of the RFI FM station and France 24 were turned down “on orders from the new military authorities.”
According to a press release from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “In Niger, the measures taken against the press are part of a context of authoritarian repression led by the authors of the attempted coup”.
The Quai d’Orsay declares in this news release that “they are engaged in a campaign of arbitrary arrests against democratic representatives after having taken hostage the elected president of the Republic of Niger,” adding that “France condemns these serious violations of fundamental freedoms.”
General Abdourahamane Tiani, who led the soldiers who carried out the putsch in Niamey, claimed in a televised speech on Wednesday night that no arrests had been made as a result of the uprising and that the Council National for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) had “abstained from any repressive action.”
A week after the coup, the France Media World group criticized the suspension of RFI and France 24 as “a decision taken outside any conventional and legal framework” in a press release on Thursday.
According to France Media World, in 2022 “1.9 million listeners (18% of the population) listened to the radio each week in the country”, aired on seven FM relays, while a quarter of the Nigerien population watched the programs of France 24.
The public group regrets that the move by the government “deprives citizens in the region of their access to free, independent, and verified information,” who have already “suffered censorship in Mali and Burkina Faso in recent months”.
Direct satellite reception, the Internet, and shortwave broadcasts of RFI’s French, Hausa, and Fulfude programming are all still the only ways to receive RFI and France 24.
Relations with Paris have declined since the July 26 coup that deposed elected president Mohamed Bazoum and imprisoned him for eight days. More than 500 French people had to leave a demonstration on Sunday because of incidents in front of the French embassy.