Niger: RSF condemns the suspension of Canal 3 TV and calls for the immediate release of its editor-in-chief Seyni Amadou
The private channel Canal 3 TV and its editor-in-chief, who has been in police custody since 18 January, were suspended by Niger's communication minister on 17 January after broadcasting the show “Baromètre des membres du gouvernement 2024”, which ranked the performance of government members. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns these illegal suspensions and calls for the immediate release of Seyni Amadou.
In Niger, a single controversial episode of television can lead to the suspension of an entire channel. On 16 January, the private channel Canal 3 TV broadcast the “Baromètre des membres du gouvernement en 2024’, an annual television show that has been running for around a decade, in which its editor-in-chief, Seyni Amadou, assesses the performance of each minister in an informal tone.
The episode was not to the liking of the communications minister who, in a decree published on 17 January, ordered the suspension of the channel for 30 days, and the suspension of the columnist's press card for three months. These suspensions are based on texts from the High Council for Communication (CSC), a regulatory body suspended by the military authorities in the weeks following the coup d'état of July 2023. Until now, matters under the CSC's jurisdiction had never been entrusted to the minister, even on a transitional basis.
Seyni Amadou was questioned at the television station's headquarters and taken into custody on 18 January on charges of “disseminating information likely to disturb public order”, “undermining state security” and “discrediting the institutions of the Republic”, according to his lawyer, Saïd Ould Salem.
Ministers, who are obliged to report on their professional actions to the public, cannot prevent a journalist from expressing an opinion on their performance — which is exactly what Canal 3 was doing by broadcasting its barometer . The subsequent suspensions and detentions are unacceptable. We condemn these abusive decisions and call on the authorities to lift these sanctions and put an end to the detention of journalist Seyni Amadou.
In April 2024, Soumana Idrissa Maïga, editor of the daily L'Enquêteur, was also prosecuted for “undermining state security”. The journalist spent more than two months in prison.
