Mali's ruling military junta will suspend broadcasts by French state-funded international news outlets RFI and France 24, accusing them of reporting what it called false allegations of army abuses, in an unprecedented clamp down on foreign media. The allegations were made by the head of the United Nations rights commission Michelle Bachelet and rights group Human Rights Watch, then reported by RFI and France 24 this week, the junta said in a statement published on Thursday.
Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday that Malian soldiers were responsible for killing at least 71 civilians since early December. Radio broadcaster RFI this week also ran a series of testimonies from people who said they had been tortured by Malian soldiers and suspected Russian mercenaries operating alongside them. Relations between Mali and former colonial master France soured in recent months, particularly since the junta fell back on election promises and started working with private Russian fighters in a long-running battle against jihadist militants. The Mali junta has staged two coups since August 2020 and delayed plans to hold elections in February, prompting sanctions from the 15-member Economic Community of West African States. It said in the statement that what it called media hype "was a premeditated strategy aimed at destabilizing the political transition, demoralize the Malian people, and discredit the Malian army." It also compared RFI and TV channel France24's reporting to the infamous "Mille Collines" radio in Rwanda, blamed for broadcasting propaganda that helped incite the 1994 genocide.
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