The High Authority for Communication (HAC), Mali’s media regulator, has been restricting broadcasting since the beginning of November. On 13 November, it suspended two radio stations in the north of the country – Aadar Koïma radio in Gao and Aadar Koukia radio in Ansongo – for three months, the first for denouncing the behaviour of certain soldiers and the second for reporting criticism of the authorities.

Two journalists with these radio stations –  Aadar Koïma’s Malick Aliou Maïga and Aadar Koukia’s Issoufa Moussa Touré – were arrested the week before for criticising the authorities, and the latter was held for four days.

Radio Kayira, a radio station based in the southern town of Kolondieba, was previously suspended for three months after an open-mic broadcast on 26 October. And on 13 November, the French television channels LCI and TF1 were removed from the TV distribution packages permitted in Mali.

The media are also grappling with a fuel shortage resulting from a blockade on supply routes  by armed groups. It has become difficult for the media to cover this important news story, several journalists told Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

“Coverage of the fuel shortage and the blockade imposed on certain areas of the country by armed groups must not be used as a pretext for suspending radio and television stations and attacking media outlets and journalists. The public has the right to be informed on the basis of genuine media pluralism, which has become impossible in Mali. RSF calls on the authorities to respect journalists' freedom to report the news and condemns the actions of armed groups against media professionals.

Six French broadcast media banned since 2022

The bans on TF1 and LCI bring the number of French broadcast media banned in Mali since 2022 to six. The others are Radio France Internationale (RFI) and the TV news channels France 24, TV5 Monde and France 2. 

In a decision made public on 13 November, the HAC said that “the television services of LCI and TF1 are removed from the packages of all distributors of authorised radio and television broadcasting services in Mali until further notice.” The regulator claimed that a 12-minute segment broadcast by LCI on 9 November (and rebroadcast by TF1 on its website the same day) “presents an alarmist tone” that “violates several Malian laws and regulations.”

Detained under cyber-crime law

The cybercrime law, which is still the subject of debate within Mali’s journalistic community, was meanwhile used on 14 November to arrest Boubacar Traoré, the editor of the newspaper L’Empire, who is being sued for defamation by the owner of the Petro-Bama company in connection with his coverage of an alleged land dispute involving this businessman.

Arrests and abductions

The situation is no better outside the capital, as seen with the. treatment received by the two local radio reporters – Malick Aliou Maïga in Gao and Issoufa Moussa Touré in Ansongo – who were arrested on 5 November after criticising the local authorities. While the former  was released the next day , the latter spent four days being held by the Ansongo gendarmerie's investigation department. 

It is in this northern region that two journalists – Radio Coton Ansongo director and presenter Saleck Ag Jiddou (aka Zeidane) and Moustapha Koné – have been missing since their abduction on the road from Ansongo to Gao on 7 November 2023 in an attack by an unidentified armed group that cost the life of Radio Naata journalist Abdoul Aziz Djibrilla, who was shot dead. 

As the security situation continues to worsen in Mali, RSF has learned that the director of ORTM, a broadcast media outlet in Douentza, in the central Mopti region, and one of his cameramen, were abducted by unidentified individuals on the road between Mopti and Douentza on 16 October. More than a month after their disappearance, no information has been publicly released about them.