Authorities in Burkina Faso suspend newspaper

Burkina Faso’s state-run media regulatory agency imposed a seven-day suspension on private daily Le Quotidien on December 13, 2012, after accusing its editor of repeatedly violating the press law, according to news reports.

The High Council of Communications, or CSC, said Le Quotidien had published “shocking and violent images” on its pages, according to news reports. The images included a photo published on November 26 of a victim burned in a traffic accident, and a June 2012 photo of a severed hand in connection with an amputation in Islamist-controlled northern Mali. Also published was a March 2012 photo of the body of a man killed in an armed robbery, news reports said.

The CSC said in a statement that Le Quotidien Editor Souleymane Traoré had ignored and defied at least two warnings from the agency. CSC Legal Director Louis Modeste Ouedraogo told CPJ that Traoré had declined to report to a summons for a hearing prior to the suspension.

Traoré denied the charge that he had declined to report for the hearing, and said he had never been summoned.

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