Resistance over the airwaves: Vital role of pirate radio station during Burkina Faso coup

Resistance over the airwaves: Vital role of pirate radio station during Burkina Faso coup

NEW YORK, 06 October 2015 / PRN Africa / -- 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.




The unrest in Burkina Faso began on September 16 when soldiers loyal to former president Blaise Compaoré, who was ousted in October last year after 27 years in power, took interim government President Michel Kafando, Prime Minister Yacouba Isaac Zida, and others hostage in the capital Ouagadougou, according to news reports.




At the same time, more than 100 journalists and press freedom advocates from 35 countries were assembled in the capital for the International Festival of Freedom of Expression and the Press to discuss the media's role during political changes. Peter Quaqua, president of the West African Journalists Association, who was at the event, recollected the mood when delegates heard that the elite presidential guard, made up of about 1,300 soldiers, had staged a coup, and he described how the press was targeted.




"When the guys made the coup they ran to the private radio station and shut it down. At the same time they went to the state radio to announce that they had taken over," Quaqua said in an interview published in independent Liberian paper FrontPageAfrica on September 25. "They know that the media plays a very important role in keeping the society together. When these kinds of things happen it is almost normal for people who take over to limit speech and freedom."






Local journalists with whom I spoke said that in the midst of uncertainty during the brief takeover, the people turned to the media for information. However, the renegade presidential guard had taken over Radio Television du Burkina, the state-owned national broadcaster, and sent soldiers to stop privately owned media outlets in Ouagadougou from broadcasting, news reports said.


SOURCE Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)


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