Luc Pagbelguem, a journalist with the privately owned channel BF1 TV, is one of three Burkinabe journalists who went missing after their arrest on March 24, 2025, and the next week appeared wearing military uniforms in a video, which CPJ reviewed.
On March 24, two National Security Council intelligence agents arrested Pagbelguem at BF1 TV’s offices in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, to question him about his report on a meeting of the Association of Burkinabe Journalists (ABJ).
At the March 21 meeting, the association’s president Guézouma Sanogo had criticized the “kidnapping” of journalists, “unprecedented” attacks on press freedom, and authorities “total control” over state-owned “propaganda” outlets.
On March 24, intelligence officers took Sanogo, ABJ’s vice-president Boukari Ouoba, and Pagbelguem to an unknown location.
On March 26, the regulatory Superior Council of Communication fined BF1 TV 500,000 CFA francs (US$822) and suspended Pagbelguem — who was still missing — from audiovisual activity for two weeks, as it condemned his report as “insulting, defamatory, and malicious.”
In a video published on Facebook on April 2, 2025, the three journalists appeared in military uniform at an unknown location, with armed men, some wearing army uniforms, standing behind them. A representative of the association, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, confirmed the journalists’ identities to CPJ.
In the video, Pagbelguem said, “the real information on the ground” had “nothing to do with what we hear,” while Ouoba added, “No one can report on the security situation while being in Ouagadougou.”
It was unclear if the statements were made under duress.
CPJ’s calls in April 2025 to Prime Minister Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, government spokesperson Pingdwendé Gilbert Ouedraogo, and the Ministry of Defense went unanswered.
Pagbelguem was released on July 17, 2025.