Niger suspends 9 French media outlets for alleged public order threat

Dakar, May 14, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in Niger to reverse the suspension of nine France-based news outlets and to release all four journalists jailed since last year.

The affected outlets are state-funded broadcasters France 24 and Radio France Internationale (RFI), Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency, TV5Monde network, the pan-African weekly Jeune Afrique, the independent investigative outlet Mediapart, the privately owned news channel TF1 Info, and the online outlets LSI Africa and France Afrique Média.

“Niger’s new media regulator, which is supposed to safeguard press freedom, is already proving a disappointment. By suspending major news outlets, it is cementing a wave of media repression unfolding across the Alliance of Sahel States,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “Nigerien authorities should immediately allow the nine suspended outlets to reach audiences in the country and cease their other censorship strategy of detaining journalists.”

Following military coups, Niger and neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso expelled French troops from their territories, turned to Russia for military support, and formed an alliance to fight al-Qaeda and Islamic State-linked extremists.

Niger’s National Communication Observatory (ONC), which was set up in September to regulate the media, said in a May 8 statement that it was suspending the nine outlets over the “repeated dissemination of content likely to seriously undermine public order, national unity, social cohesion, and the stability of republican institutions.”

On May 5, Burkina Faso’s regulatory Superior Council of Communication (CSC) also banned TV5Monde, citing “numerous violations of the law, ethics, and professional standards” in its coverage of anti-terrorism operations in Burkina Faso and the April 25 attacks in Mali.

Authorities united under the Alliance of Sahel States are increasingly aligned in their actions against media outlets covering the region’s ongoing security crisis.

Separately, on May 8, Gazali Abdou Tasawa, a correspondent for German state-owned broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) was provisionally released in Niger, after 105 days in detention.

“Proceedings against him are still ongoing,” DW said in a statement, reviewed by CPJ.

Niger was the second worst jailer of journalists in sub-Saharan Africa in CPJ’s latest annual prison census — tied with Rwanda and Ethiopia — with five journalists behind bars on December 1, 2025. Four remain in prison — Hamid Mahmoud, Ibro Chaibou, Oumarou Abou Kané, and Youssouf Sériba.

CPJ’s calls to request comment from the ONC and CSC went unanswered.