Mali's military-led government has suspended broadcasting by French private news channel LCI on its territory for two months, alleging "false accusations" were made on air against the army and its Russian allies.
"The services of LCI television are withdrawn from the bundles of all distributors of radio or television broadcasting services authorised in Mali for a period of two months" from 23 August, Mali's media regulator (HAC) said in a statement on Saturday.
HAC objected to comments made by military specialist Colonel Michel Goya in a programme broadcast on LCI titled "Wagner Decimated in Mali: the Hand of Kyiv".
At the end of July, the Malian army and its Russian allies suffered a heavy defeat in the north of the country, with Tuareg-led rebels claiming to have killed 84 Wagner fighters and 47 Malian soldiers.
Mali on 4 August severed diplomatic ties with Ukraine, accusing it of supporting rebel groups, charges Kyiv has firmly rejected.
The communications authority said the programme, broadcast on 27 July, contained "disparaging remarks, gratuitous assertions and false accusations of exactions against the Malian armed forces and their Russian partners".
Clampdown on foreign media
Ruled by army leaders since a double coup in 2020 and 2021, Mali is battling both a jihadist insurgency and a separatist struggle in the north.
In 2022, the junta broke away from its long-standing alliance with former colonial ruler France, and began forging closer ties with Russia, with troops from the infamous Wagner mercenary corps deployed to the country.
Since then Mali's junta has clamped down on foreign media.
It permanently suspended RFI and its sister television station France 24 in April 2022, and public TV broadcaster France 2 at the beginning of 2024.
RFI and France 24 contest ‘definitive’ broadcasting ban in Mali
Media have also come under pressure in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, also ruled by military leaders who came to power in coups.
Burkina Faso suspended LCI in June 2023 after a journalist's comments on the jihadist violence-linked security situation were described as "false information".
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(with newswires)
