APA-Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) The premises of the investigative newspaper L’Evènement were sealed
off by the tax authorities in Ouagadougou on Friday June 2, 2023 over a row.
“We were visited by tax agents on Friday morning. They were accompanied by elements of the defense and security forces. The newspaper’s head office has been sealed off,” said Atiana Serge Oulon, managing editor of the investigative fortnightly.
According to witnesses, the security forces ordered the newspaper’s staff to vacate the premises before closing them down.
The tax reassessment imposed on the fortnightly amounts to more than 20 million CFA francs, according to its General Administrator, Germain Bittou Nama. To reopen, L’Evènement will have to pay at least half of the sum due, i.e. 10 million FCFA, and the remainder by December 31, 2023 at the latest.
The ‘Société des éditeurs de la presse privée’ (Private Press Publishers’ Association, SEP), which confirmed the sealing of the fortnightly’s premises, explained that the closure was justified by “the fact that the newspaper is not up to date with its taxes.”
“The newspaper has never refused to meet its tax obligations, quite the contrary, in fact. This decision is all the more incomprehensible in that it comes at a time when the newspaper’s managers were in discussion with the tax authorities with a view to gradually paying off its debts,” SEP expressed surprise.
The management of the newspaper l’Evènement have repeatedly indicated that they are subject to “pressure” from the authorities, since the revelations of an affair involving 400 million CFA francs intended for the army’s civilian auxiliaries and pocketed by an army captain.
“It’s hard not to make the connection between the work of this investigative newspaper and its closure by the tax authorities,” said SEP, which denounced the “use of the tax authorities and public services” to silence voices that dissent from the policies of the transitional authorities.
Since September 2022, the press has been facing a “constant deterioration” in working conditions.
Journalists and media outlets are regularly threatened and intimidated by people claiming to be close to Captain Ibrahim Traoré.
At the end of March, the transitional government pledged its “fundamental commitment” to freedom of expression, a few weeks after the French media RFI and France 24 were suspended from broadcasting.
In early April, the correspondents for the French dailies Le Monde and Libération were expelled from the country.
DS/ac/fss/as/APA