It is abhorrent that France 24 would glorify a high-level jihad leader by giving him a public forum, and then make up excuses about it. Would France 24 interview an innocent man whom Leftists deem guilty by Leftists for the “offense” of insulting Islam, or someone whose aim is to show that mainstream Islam is not a religion of peace? Almost certainly not. A 2020 report states:
Rasmus Paludan, head of the extremist party Stram Kurs, has been jailed in a detention centre in Paris after planning to burn a Koran in a largely-Muslim district of the city.
Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State are responsible for the wanton murder of villagers in Burkina Faso. What did France 24 possibly hope to gain by showcasing this jihadist? Did they ask him how he feels since becoming emir after a French raid killed his predecessor Abdelmalek Droukdel? How he feels about the withdrawal of French troops from Mali and Burkina Faso? Did they inquire as to what his jihadi plans are?
France 24 — a state-owned international news TV network — has now been suspended from broadcasting in Burkina Faso.
Back in November, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni blasted France for exploiting African children working gold mines. She specifically highlighted the exploitation of children in Burkina Faso. She showed photos of children “mining gold in Burkina Faso, an African country that France once controlled. The Italian prime minister claimed that France is still forcing the African nation to hand over 50% of its exports to them.”
“Burkina Faso halts France 24 broadcasts after al-Qaeda interview,” Al Jazeera, March 27, 2023:
Burkina Faso’s military government has suspended France 24 broadcasts after the TV station aired an interview with the head of al-Qaeda’s North African wing.
The news channel this month aired the interview with Yezid Mebarek, also known as Abu Ubaydah Yusuf al-Anabi, who claimed the title of “emir of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb” (AQIM) in 2020 after a French raid killed his predecessor.
By interviewing the head of AQIM, “France 24 is not only acting as a mouthpiece for these terrorists, but worse, it is providing a space for the legitimisation of terrorist actions and hate speech,” Burkina Faso’s minister of communication, Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo, said in a statement on Monday.
In response. the channel said the move was based on “unfounded accusations”.
“The channel never gave him the floor directly,” France 24 said in a statement on Monday, adding it chose to only report what the interviewee said through a studio conversation with one of its journalists.
Relations between Paris and Ouagadougou have deteriorated sharply since Burkina Faso’s military seized power in a coup in October.
In December 2022, Ouagadougou suspended broadcasts of Radio France International, a radio station also funded by the French government, over what it called false reports and giving voice to armed groups.
A month after, Burkina Faso gave France, its former coloniser, one month to withdraw its troops as it ended a military accord that allowed French forces to fight armed groups on its territory.
In recent years, there has been a rise of anti-French sentiment across parts of Central and West Africa, some of which used to be under French colonial administration even as recently as half a century ago.
In March last year, neighbouring Mali also moved to suspend broadcasts by France 24 and French state-funded international RFI radio, accusing the news outlets of reporting “false allegations” that the army killed dozens of civilians……..
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