RFI, France 24, LCI, BBC News, Afrique Media TV, TV5 Monde, Le Monde, etc.
News media outlets and general media outlets broadcasting television news programs have been facing increasingly frequent pressure in recent months.
In the three Sahel countries that have come under Russian influence (Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso), the news media have been subject to considerable pressure in recent months, with temporary broadcasting bans and even long-term suspensions disrupting their operations and destabilizing their ability to report the news, while also putting their correspondents at risk. The latest case concerns LCI, which has been suspended for two months in Mali.
In CAMEROON, the pan-African channel with an anti-colonialist and pro-Russian editorial line, AFRIQUE MEDIA TV had its offices sealed in early December 2023 for "unpaid contributions," while Équinoxe Télévision was forced to suspend its flagship program Droit de réponse in August 2024. a program known for its free and critical tone towards the government, as well as the program that was to replace it.
In SENEGAL, the press is the focus of concern: in August, a widely supported "day without the press" drew attention to the fiscal and economic measures taken by the new authorities, which have led to fears for their survival.
In Gabon, France 24, RFI, and TV5 Monde were also suspended for a period of time during the presidential elections.
The effects, and probably the reasons behind these decisions by those in power, depend on the nature of the funding of the various media outlets:
State-funded media outlets such as RFI, BBC News, TV5 Monde, and France 24 are not threatened by these temporary bans: while they weaken their local correspondents and undermine their coverage of events in line with their editorial policy, they are limited in time and scope and do not jeopardize their existence.
The same is true for media outlets such as Afrique Media TV, which are financed by "patrons" and often supported in one way or another by governments.
Private media outlets such as Le Monde, LCI, C News, and BFM TV, whose business models are based outside Africa, are also largely unaffected by these bans, which only impact the small number of people who consume these media (mostly expatriates and political and economic decision-makers).
Ultimately, those most affected by this relentless pressure are private pan-African or national media outlets whose sole means of subsistence are advertising and/or sales (single copies or subscriptions) at the local level or, more rarely, at the pan-African level.
They must constantly juggle between respecting their editorial line—since they are funded and appreciated by consumers for this reason—and the sword of Damocles wielded by the powers that be, who can destabilize them permanently at any moment.
They are both the most threatened media outlets because they are the most financially fragile, and those that demonstrate the greatest "balance"—others might use the term self-censorship—in order to avoid sanctions while remaining true to their DNA.
Curiously, the powers that be, which in most countries do not have audience data on media usage, constantly attack the "old" media, which ultimately reach few people, and give free rein to misinformation and the publication of fake news on the same subjects on social networks, which are probably as widely consumed as, if not more so than, the news media in many countries.