Suspensions and closures of international media outlets are increasingly being used to silence critical reporting and restrict access to information across the Sahel.
Since 2022, several international media organisations, including Radio France Internationale, France 24 and Voice of America, have suffered suspensions or outright broadcasting bans in a climate of restrictions on local and international media alike and tighter state control over information in the region.
In this edition, we examine the crackdown on international media across the region, with a focus on the latest suspensions imposed by Nigerien authorities.
On 8 May 2026, Niger’s media regulator, the National Communications Observatory (ONC) suspended nine international French-language media outlets, accusing them of disseminating content deemed capable of undermining public order and national stability.
The affected outlets include France 24, Radio France Internationale, Agence France-Presse, TV5 Monde, as well as France Afrique Media, LSI Africa, TF1 Info, Jeune Afrique, and Mediapart.
The decision, widely condemned by press freedom organisations, further illustrates the ongoing deterioration of media freedom and the increasing use of censorship measures in the country.
Niger’s military authorities had already established a pattern of restricting international media following the July 2023 coup. On 3 August 2023, within days of seizing power, the junta suspended France 24 and Radio France Internationale (RFI), marking an early and deliberate use of media bans against outlets perceived as critical of the new regime.
On 12 December 2024, the BBC was suspended for three months after its BBC Afrique service reported on jihadist attacks in the village of Chatoumane and the Téra area that left an estimated 130 soldiers and civilians dead, accounts the authorities dismissed as “erroneous information” aimed at undermining troop morale.
Alongside the BBC suspension, the government also announced it would file a formal complaint against RFI for alleged “incitement” to genocide and inter-community massacres.
Since 2022, authorities across the Sahelian countries have carried out 19 incidents of suspensions, bans, or restrictions targeting 13 international media outlets. Below are some recent examples.
Mali
On 9 May 2025, Malian authorities suspended TV5 Monde “until further notice,” accusing the French television channel of biased coverage of a protest in Bamako against the repeal of the political parties charter. This followed an earlier three-month suspension imposed on the same channel in September 2024 after it aired a report on a drone strike in Tinzaouatène.
Also on 17 March 2022, authorities permanently banned France 24 and Radio France Internationale (RFI), accusing them of broadcasting content hostile to the Malian armed forces. Press freedom organisations have repeatedly condemned these actions, describing them as a systematic attack on media pluralism and citizens’ access to information.
Burkina Faso
Likewise, in Burkina Faso, authorities suspended the broadcasts of Voice of America for three months in October 2024 and temporarily banned local media from relaying international programmes. Prior to this, the country had suspended Radio France Internationale in December 2022 and France 24 in March 2023.
These repeated suspensions and bans on international media outlets is rapidly leading to a normalisation of censorship and what has been described as a “news blackout zone” across the Sahel. It is important to note that local media are also affected by arbitrary suspensions and closures with many independent voices going into exile or forced to self-censor.
While governments in the region continue to invoke internal and external security threats to justify these measures, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) is of the view, as recently expressed by our founder and Board member Prof Kwame Karikari, that in this precarious situation the media offers a unique platform to mobilise citizens against these threats.
The MFWA strongly calls on the authorities in Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso to put an end to arbitrary restrictions on media outlets (local and international), uphold media pluralism, and ensure that journalists and citizens have the right to freely access and share information without fear of censorship or retaliation.
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