The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has made a public appeal to the authorities in Burkina Faso, urging them to release three journalists detained under controversial circumstances. Videos circulating on social media show the journalists—Guézouma Sanogo, Boukari Ouoba, and Luc Pagbelguem—dressed in military uniforms. Their detention comes during a period of heightened concerns over press freedom in Burkina Faso. The CPJ has called the detentions another example of how the local media landscape is becoming increasingly restricted under military rule.
The detained journalists appeared in a video released by multiple Burkinabé Facebook accounts. They were seen wearing military attire at an undisclosed location, surrounded by armed men in uniforms. The event has stirred fears that the recent pattern of targeting journalists is linked to an ongoing effort by the military junta to limit independent reporting. According to CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative Moussa Ngom, the video intensifies worries about journalists kidnapped since June. Six of the seven journalists reported missing are believed to have been conscripted into the army.
Both Sanogo and Ouoba, who serve as the president and vice president of l’Association des journalistes du Burkina (AJB), are known critics of the junta’s increasing grip over media outlets in Burkina Faso. In the circulating video, Pagbelguem Ouoba expressed under apparent duress that “the real information on the ground” is being misrepresented, and “no one can report on the security situation while being in Ouagadougou.”
This episode is part of a broader pattern of crackdowns targeting journalists in Burkina Faso. The administration led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré has reportedly been using emergency laws for suppressive purposes. Under these laws, notices are sent to journalists and civil society members to compel them into security operations, justified under a recent “general mobilization” plan, which gives the president sweeping powers.
Advocacy organizations, including Reporters Without Borders (RSF), are urging the transitional military authorities to cease any actions that stifle independent journalism. The demand is for an environment where journalists can conduct their work freely and safely. For more detailed coverage on this issue, see the original report on JURIST.