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DonateThe African media community lost a central voice this week with the passing of Samuel Kiendrebeogo, the veteran host of weekly media magazine Médias d'Afrique et D'Ailleurs on Voice of America's French service. Sam, as he was known, died while vacationing in his native Burkina Faso. He was 63.
Committee to Protect Journalists
CPJ Blog
Press Freedom News and Views
Burkina Faso
For Geneviève Zongo, every December 13 revives excruciating memories of the loss of her husband Norbert Zongo, editor of the weekly L'Indépendant. He was assassinated in 1998 while investigating the murder of a driver working at Burkina Faso's presidential palace. More painful still is that the killers who ambushed Zongo's car, riddling it with bullets and torching it, have never been brought to justice.
Fifty years ago, development journalism helped to silence dissenting voices:
One had to rally to the fathers of the nation for the sake of national unity.
Accordingly, the legacy of these 50 years of Francophone media in Africa is freedom of the press and opinion. Journalists prod the
elites, who are allergic to criticism, and require that they account for their handling
of power and assume responsibility in the face of the various scandals they cause.
Recently in Burkina Faso for instance, a government minister had to resign
after the print media revealed his extramarital affair with a married
woman. This was unthinkable a few years
ago.
I will continue to relive for a long time August 5, 1960, the day Upper Volta, as Burkina Faso was then known, proclaimed independence from France! As a presenter of the newly founded national radio network, I was on the air, which was open to listeners all night. Some listeners, with tears of joy on their faces would enter the studio singing or reciting epic poems! As much as I loved the radio days of my debut in journalism, I have mixed feelings about the first decades following Independence.
A week ago today, CPJ sent a letter
of concern to President Blaise
Compaoré of Burkina Faso urging his government to investigate a series
of death threats sent in the past year or so via e-mail to independent
journalists there. Using Yahoo
This morning, police in
Ten years ago on Saturday, the bullet-ridden bodies of
investigative journalist Norbert
Zongo and three friends were found in Zongo's burned-out car outside the
capital of
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