(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Yéro Boly, minister of territorial administration and security, RSF asked that the private radio station Horizon FM be reopened. RSF recalled that in January 1999 Burkina Faso ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 19 of which guarantees the “…freedom to seek, receive and impart information […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Yéro Boly, minister of territorial administration and security, RSF asked that the private radio station Horizon FM be reopened. RSF recalled that in January 1999 Burkina Faso ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 19 of which guarantees the “…freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds…”.
According to the information collected by RSF, on 17 April 2000, some fifteen police officers raided the offices of the private radio station and closed it down, forcing the station to cease broadcasting. On 12 April, Horizon FM had aired a statement by the Collective of democratic organisations and political parties (Collectif des organisations démocratiques de masse et de partis politiques), which called for a “mass gathering” in front of the trade union centre in Ouagadougou. The text called for “the lifting of the de facto blockade through the liberation of the campus and residence halls”. On 14 April, the High Council on Information (Conseil supérieur de l’information, CSI) recalled that “the blocade mentioned [in the press release] is false information and constitutes an infraction as noted in the Information Code of 30 December 1993”. No information was provided by the authorities concerning the length of this closure.
In June 1999, Horizon FM was suspended for one week by the CSI. In 1997, Mustapha Thiombiano, the radio station’s director, was attacked by CDP (ruling party) sympathisers (see IFEX alerts of 25 and 7 March and 25 February 1997).
