Burkina Faso has expelled two French journalists working for newspapers Le Monde and Liberation, the two newspapers said on Sunday, accusing the authorities of seeking to stifle freedom of speech with an escalating crackdown on foreign media.
Liberation said its correspondent Agnès Faivre and Le Monde’s Sophie Douce arrived in Paris early on Sunday after they were summoned separately for questioning by the military authorities on Friday and later notified of their expulsion.
The two are “journalists of perfect integrity, who worked in Burkina Faso legally, with valid visas and accreditations … We strongly protest against these absolutely unjustified expulsions,” Liberation said in an editorial statement on its website.
There was no statement from the authorities in Burkina Faso. The French foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Relations between Paris and Ouagadougou have deteriorated sharply since Burkina Faso’s military seized power in a coup last October.
In March, the Burkina military government scrapped a 1961 accord with France on military assistance. It has since ordered the French ambassador and troops to withdraw from the country and suspended broadcasts by France’s RFI radio and television channel France 24.
“These two expulsions mark a new major setback in the freedom to inform on the situation in Burkina Faso,” Le Monde Director Jérôme Fenoglio said in a statement.
Source: Aljazeera.com
