APA-Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) “Le Monde” newspaper condemns government accusations and its “suspension” in the country.
The transitional government has decided to “suspend all distribution of the newspaper Le Monde in Burkina Faso as of this Saturday, December 2, 2023.”
It is blaming the French media for an article it describes as “tendentious” published on the Le Monde website and entitled “Au Burkina, la Propagande fait rage après l’attaque djihadiste sur Djibo3 (“In Burkina, propaganda rages after the jihadist attack on Djibo”).
“In an intellectual balancing act, the newspaper tries to put the Burkinabe state and the hordes of terrorists who attacked Djibo on November 26 back-to-back, but does a poor job of concealing its penchant for these men without faith or law who rape, pillage and kill innocent populations, legitimizing terrorist discourse and propaganda,” reads the press release.
Contrary to what Le Monde peremptorily asserts, the Executive has denied that it has locked itself into a logic of propaganda in the war against terrorism.
“On the contrary, it has always made it its duty to speak the truth to the people about the conduct of the fight against terrorism, and its communication on the events in Djibo has not departed from this rule of governance ethics,” explained Jean-Emmanuel Ouédraogo, signatory of the press release.
The government spokesman regretted that Le Monde was indulging in a war of figures “in what was an unambiguous victory” for the ‘Forces combattantes.’ (Fighting Forces)
For him, the French daily “obeys other desiderata.” This is why “it allows itself to take liberties with the reality of the facts and betrays its duty of truth to the public,”
As the government pointed out, “in this battle involving the future of (the) nation, the newspaper Le Monde has chosen its side.”
Last April, Le Monde correspondent Sophie Douce was expelled from the country. The transitional authorities had already suspended the French media RFI, France24, LCI and Jeune Afrique.
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