The military regime of Niger, in power since a coup d’état perpetrated on July 26, 2023, has already suspended the broadcasting of several international media, such as RFI, France 24 and the BBC.
“The press card of journalist Seyni Amadou of Canal 3 TV is suspended for a period of three months” and “the Canal 3 TV channel is suspended for a period of one month,” the ministry said in a press release.
These measures “take effect from the signing” by Minister Sidi Raliou Mohamed of the order, dated Friday, according to the document.
The ministry does not specify the reasons for the two suspensions.
But according to the management of the Canal 3 channel, contacted by AFP, these sanctions are “related to an element (subject commented on) on the classification of ministers” of the government of Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, civilian Prime Minister appointed by the diet.
-Illustrated by photos of each minister, the commentary read by Seyni Amadou and broadcast Thursday evening on Canal 3 is presented as “a barometer of performance” of members of the government.
In this ranking, Mr. Zeine occupies the rank of “top of the class”, while several of his ministers are described as “soft underbelly” of the team.
The Minister of the Interior, General Mohamed Toumba, an influential member of the regime, “should have been at the top of this ranking (…) except that his ministry is invested and infested by traders and young sellers of illusions”, the journalist commented.
Last November, a journalist from the same channel, the Nigerian-Ivorian Serge Mathurin Adou, was indicted for “endangering state security” and imprisoned in a Nigerien prison in a case of alleged destabilization in neighboring Burkina Faso, also led by a military regime and ally of Niger.
