Mali to suspend France 24 TV station and RFI radio

 

The Malian military administration is threatening to halt transmissions by the French state-funded international RFI radio and the France 24 television station, claiming that the news organizations are spreading "false claims" that the army has murdered hundreds of people.

 

Michelle Bachelet, the chair of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, and the rights group Human Rights Watch made the claims. According to a statement released by the authorities on Thursday, they were then published in news stories by RFI and France 24 this week.

 

Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday that Malian soldiers were responsible for killing at least 71 civilians since early December.

Since August 2020, the Malian military has staged two coups. It said in the statement that the news reports were “a premeditated strategy aimed at destabilising the political transition” in order to “demoralise the Malian people and discredit the Malian army”.

The government did not give details of when the broadcasts would be suspended.

Reuters reports that both outlets were still on air in Mali on Thursday morning.

 

As anti-French sentiment develops in the Sahel area, relations between the two nations have deteriorated in recent months.

 

After nearly a decade of battle against the escalating insurrection, President Emmanuel Macron ordered the evacuation of the French soldiers and the Paris-led European group known as Takuba in February.

 

 

Source: Al Jazeera