The radio station and the television channel had been cut in mid-March after the publication of information according to which the Malian army was involved in abuses against civilians.
Le Monde with AFP
The ax fell for RFI and France 24 in Mali: the broadcasting of the two French audiovisual media, already cut since mid-March, was definitively suspended on Wednesday April 27, a sign of a climbing of tensions between Paris and Bamako. France Médias Monde (FMM), parent company of RFI and France 24, reacted in a press release, contesting “with force such a measure” and promising to use “all the other possible remedies”.
The group told AFP that it had received the notification of this decision of the High Authority for Communication in Mali on Wednesday. “We will continue to cover news in Mali, which interests all of Africa as the rest of the world. All technical solutions will be implemented to make our media accessible to Malians who wish to continue to receive free information , expert and open to the world, “continues Fmm.
The station and the channel have already been cut since mid-March “on the FM network for RFI and by operators who distribute television on site for France 24,” the group told AFP. On the other hand, RFI remained “accessible by short waves, a technical means widely used in Africa, in particular by the populations far from major cities”, just like France 24 “by direct satellite reception”. Social networks also remained accessible and the two media “will benefit as in Russia, in partnership with RSF [Reporters Without Borders], Mirrors websites via addresses that cannot be cut by the Malian authorities”.
“Radio thousand hills”
The junta had ordered the suspension of the two media on March 17 after the publication by RFI and France 24 of information according to which the Malian army was involved in abuses against civilians – a decision qualified then as “serious” by Emmanuel Macron. The Malian government had in the process announced to initiate “a procedure […] to suspend the dissemination of the two French public media until further notice.
Since then, FMM defends itself and wants to initiate “defamation action in France and Mali, following the publication [of a press release] in which the Malian government compares the supposed actions of RFI and France 24 to practices and the sadly famous role of the Radio Mille Hills “. “These accusations, which refer to the radio having encouraged the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994, in addition to being completely unfounded, are extremely serious and shocking, undermining the integrity of RFI and France 24 as to security teams “, denounces FMM without specifying the number of his teammates still on site.
The final suspension of RFI and France 24 comes when the Malian junta accused Tuesday evening the French army of “espionage” and “subversion” after the broadcast by the French staff of videos shot by a Drone near a base in the center of Mali recently returned by France. Against the backdrop of a diplomatic crisis with Bamako, Paris announced in February the withdrawal of its soldiers deployed in Mali, an operation to be completed this summer.