The arrest of journalists Guezouma Sanogo and Boukari Ouoba in Burkina Faso is a deliberate attempt to silence critical voices and suppress press freedom.
This statement was originally published on rsf.org on 24 March 2025.
Update 03/25/25: A third journalist, Luc Pagbelguem, working for the private channel BF1, was taken away in the afternoon of March 24 by “two agents of the National Security Council” (CNS), according to his media outlet. The CNS only wants to “hear him” about a report on the AJB congress. The individuals who abducted Alain Traoré, who has been missing for more than eight months, had also promised to bring the columnist back before his broadcast. Luc Pagbelguem must under no circumstances suffer a similar fate. RSF is calling for him to be released as soon as his hearing is over.
Guezouma Sanogo and Boukari Ouoba, journalists and directors of the Association of Journalists of Burkina Faso (AJB), were arrested by individuals claiming to be from the intelligence service and taken to an unknown destination on 24 March, three days after they strongly criticised the deterioration of the country’s media landscape. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the authorities to release them immediately.
Their warning was immediately suppressed. Guezouma Sanogo, who was recently re-elected to head the Association of Journalists of Burkina Faso (AJB) on 21 March, and who is also a journalist with Radio Télévision du Burkina (RTB), used the association’s Extraordinary Congress to denounce the junta’s “total stranglehold” on the country’s public media, which have been transformed into propaganda tools. The AJB also described the attacks on freedom of expression and freedom of the press since the junta came to power as “unprecedented.” The authorities were quick to react.
Barely three days later, on the morning of 24 March, individuals claiming to be police from the intelligence service arrested Guezouma Sanogo and Boukari Ouoba, an investigative journalist and vice-president of AJB, at the Norbert Zongo National Press Centre (CNP-NZ) in Ouagadougou, the capital, before taking them to an unknown destination.
“The arrest of journalists Guezouma Sanogo and Boukari Ouoba three days after their association publicly condemned the deteriorating press freedom in Burkina Faso, is part of a strategy to systematically silence all critical voices in the country. The tactics used in this case — an arrest carried out by individuals posing as intelligence agents — resemble the many other arrests and kidnappings orchestrated by the military authorities since they came to power. The war effort promoted by the head of the Burkinabe junta, Ibrahim Traoré, is once again being used to destroy journalism in Burkina Faso. RSF calls on the authorities to make the fate and whereabouts of these two AJB leaders public and to release them without delay.”
Sadibou Marong, Director, RSF Sub-Saharan Africa
Three journalists forcibly conscripted and one missing
At the AJB congress, Guezouma Sanogo also called for the release of the four journalists and columnists who had been requisitioned and reported missing since the beginning of 2024. On 24 October 2024, the Burkinabe authorities took responsibility for the requisition of Serge Oulon, editor of the newspaper L’Événement and Adama Bayala and Kalifara Séré, columnists on the private television station BF1. However, they are still refusing to comment on the fate of Alain Traoré, known as Alain Alain, a columnist with the Omega Media press group. Guezouma Sanogo also mentioned the disappearances of Bienvenu Apiou, James Yazid Dembélé and Mamadou Ali Compaoré.
The media landscape in Burkina Faso has shrunk dramatically since the transitional government came to power, with some 15 foreign and local media suspended since December 2022.
