Mali’s military rulers are to take two French broadcasters off air in the country, after accusing them of reporting “false allegations”.
Both RFI radio and France 24 television, who receive funding from Mali’s former colonial ruler France, will not be accessible in Mali for an undetermined time.
In a statement on Thursday, Mali said it was taking the action because both channels had reported on allegations – made by the UN’s Michelle Bachelet and the rights group Human Rights Watch – that Malian soldiers had killed numerous civilians in recent months.
Mali government spokesman Col Abdoulaye Maïga said that “these false allegations” were made in reports on 14 and 15 March, in which RFI gave the floor to alleged victims of abuses allegedly committed by the Malian army and the Russian mercenary group Wagner.
France Médias Monde, the state-owned holding company that counts France 24 and RFI among its subsidiaries, said it “deplores this decision and reiterates its attachment to freedom of information and to the professional and neutrality of its journalists”.
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