Burkina Faso documents by Year:
Resistance over the airwaves: Pirate station's vital role during Burkina Faso coup
October 6, 2015 3:45 PM ET
Radio Resistance was a pirate radio station born out of necessity. During Burkina Faso's short-lived military coup last month, in which many local radio stations were forced off air, it kept citizens informed and gave them the courage to stand up against the attempted takeover, Burkinabe journalists said....
Ban of India's Daughter and other films silences debate on key issues
March 6, 2015 4:01 PM ET
What do Delhi, Beijing, and Villiers-sur-Marne have in common, but Ouagadougou does not? The first three recently banned access to films their governments deemed inappropriate. But a film festival in the fourth, the capital of Burkina Faso in West Africa, is stepping up security to show an acclaimed but...
Jailed Burkinabe journalist appeals to African Court
July 29, 2013 3:19 PM ET
Journalist Lohé Issa Konaté has been imprisoned in Burkina Faso since he was convicted in October of criminal defamation over articles in private weekly L'Ouragan alleging corruption and abuse of power at the office of the public prosecutor. In May, an appeals court rejected his appeal and upheld the 12-month...
Burkina Faso state media journalists protest censorship
July 16, 2013 2:25 PM ET
In Burkina Faso, tens of journalists from state media today held a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Communications in the capital Ouagadougou to protest what they deem to be excessive government censorship of news coverage....
Samuel Kiendrebeogo: 1949-2012
January 6, 2012 5:12 PM ET
The 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....
In Norbert Zongo case, 12 years of impunity
December 14, 2010 4:15 PM ET
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...
Africa's path to press freedom goes online
August 12, 2010 12:27 PM ET
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,...
A springtime for Burkina Faso’s press
July 21, 2010 5:28 PM ET
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...
Yahoo France reacts to Burkina Faso e-mail death threats
February 24, 2009 5:04 PM ET
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 France accounts, senders have boasted about intimidating the...
Burkina Faso police question Zongo protesters
December 15, 2008 4:12 PM ET
This morning, police in Burkina Faso summoned four leaders of a march over the weekend that called for a renewed investigation into the unsolved 1998 assassination of investigative journalist Norbert Zongo. Among those questioned was Jean-Claude Meda, the president of the Association of Journalists of Burkina Faso, who told me...