AFP dispatch
The military-dominated authorities in Mali have decided to suspend the French news channel LCI for two months after what it claims were "false accusations" by a consultant against the Malian army and its Russian allies.
"LCI television services are being removed from the packages of all authorized radio and television broadcasters in Mali for a period of two months" starting August 23, 2024, the Malian High Authority for Communication (HAC) announced on Saturday.
In 2022, the junta in Mali broke off its longstanding alliance with France and its European partners, turning militarily and politically toward Moscow.
Since then, Malian colonels have suspended the popular French media outlets France 24 and Radio France Internationale (RFI). France 2 had also been suspended in early 2024. Correspondents from a number of foreign
media outlets have been forced to leave, go into exile, or remain silent because they are unable to work.
According to the HAC, LCI, TF1 Group's private 24-hour news channel, broadcast a program on July 27 entitled "Wagner decimated in Mali: Kiev's hand" with guest Colonel Michel Goya, LCI's military consultant.
The HAC criticizes Colonel Goya for making "derogatory remarks, gratuitous statements, and false accusations of abuses against the Malian armed forces and their Russian partners."
It adds that the guest also called for "open support for terrorism under the pretext of supporting Ukraine against Russia."
At the end of July, the Malian army and its ally, the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, suffered a heavy defeat in fighting with separatists and jihadists in the north of the country. A Ukrainian military intelligence official, Andriy Yusov, had implied that Kiev had provided information to the rebels to enable them to carry out their attack, which subsequently led to the severing of diplomatic relations between Mali and Ukraine.
In Burkina Faso and Niger, Mali's neighbors, the military also seized power by force in 2022 and 2023 and took measures against the foreign press.
In Burkina Faso, LCI was suspended in June 2023 after a journalist's comments on the situation related to jihadist violence were described as "false information."