Togo suspends French broadcasters RFI, France 24 for three months

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Togo suspended French broadcasters RFI and France 24 for three months, the media regulator said Monday, accusing both of transmitting "inexact and tendentious" content.

The temporary ban further reduces the two French public broadcasters' availability in West Africa after they were slapped with multi-year suspensions in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, a trio of Sahelian countries currently run by military juntas.

"Several recent broadcasts relayed inaccurate, biased, and even factually incorrect statements, undermining the stability of republican institutions and the country's image," Togo's High Authority for Audiovisual and Communications (HAAC) said in a statement.

The move comes after anti-government protests shook the capital last week, Lome.

Dozens of people were arrested after police dispersed protesters with tear gas on the night of June 5 to 6 in several districts, including near the presidential palace.

The government said it has since released more than 50 people but several remain in police custody.

Popular rapper Aamron urged people to denounce the arrests. The protests were spurred by rising electricity prices and constitutional changes enacted by the government of President Faure Gnassingbe, who took power in 2005 upon the death of his father, who had ruled for nearly four decades.

Aamron -- real name Essowe Tchalla -- was arrested on May 26 but then appeared in a video 10 days later in which he apologised to the president and said he was in a psychiatric hospital suffering from "severe depression".

In a statement, which AFP has seen, cited three reports by the French broadcasters to justify its decision.

The first was an interview broadcast on France 24 in which "inaccurate statements were made regarding the alleged conditions under which the artist Aamron was apprehended."

The second featured "public statements by the regional correspondent of France 24 calling for mobilisation against republican institutions", while the third alluded to "biased" remarks in an RFI commentary.

Togolese opposition parties and civil society groups last Thursday demanded Gnassingbe step down.

The National Alliance for Change (ANC), Democratic Forces for the Republic (FDR) and civil society groups urged citizens to engage in civil disobedience from June 23 to thwart the "illegitimate" regime.

Protests have been banned in Togo since 2022, though public meetings are still allowed.

Togo currently places 121st out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) rankings on freedom of the press -- a drop of eight places from the previous year.