The French television channel has also been fined 50 million CFA francs.
On Tuesday 18 June, the High Communication Council (CSC) suspended the programmes of TV5 Monde-Afrique for a period of six months, according to a press release obtained by APA.
“This suspension is accompanied by a fine of 50 million CFA francs,” the CSC noted.
The regulator accuses TV5 Monde of “breaches of the law” during a news programme on 17 June in which Newton Ahmed Barry, a journalist exiled in France and an opponent of the current regime, was a guest.
According to the CSC, Barry made “malicious insinuations, tendentious comments bordering on disinformation and allegations likely to minimise the efforts made by the transitional authorities, the Defence and Security Forces (FDS) and the population in their efforts to regain national territory.”
This is the second suspension of a French television channel in Burkina Faso in less than three months. TV5 Monde-Afrique had already been sanctioned by the CSC on 27 April following the broadcast of a report by the NGO Human Rights Watch, which made serious allegations against the national armed forces.
The CSC called on the media to be more professional in their coverage of the security crisis in Burkina Faso.
DS/te/lb/as/APA