© AFP/Files
The premises of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in Lodnres (illustrative image)
The Burundian media regulator announced on Wednesday March 30 the “ reopening from British radio BBC, which had not been allowed to broadcast in the country since May 2018.
The National Communication Council (CNC) had suspended broadcasting on 4 May 2018 from the BBC and American radio VOA for “ Breaches of the law governing the press and of ethics “. The body then withdrew its operating license from the BBC in March 2019. VOA has not seen its suspension lifted since then.
« We have come to the decision to reopen BBC radio from today “, announced the president of the CNC, Vestine Mbundagu, in a statement in French to the press. ” The CNC had suspended BBC radio for professional misconduct, then (…) his Excellency the President of the Republic recommended that the CNC should sit down with the media under sanctions so that it might settle the problems definitively “, she explained. ” We followed suit, (…) and finally, the conditionality that we had asked on BBC radio was honored “, she added.
The CNC had withdrew BBC operating license in 2019 considering that the station had “ not fulfilled its promise to respect (…) the principles of balance of information and rigorous verification of sources ” following that “ broadcast a documentary which turned out to be a false, slanderous and damning montage for Burundi ».
The institution was referring to the documentary Inside a torture site in Burundibroadcast by the BBC in December 2018, evoking “ secret torture and detention sites to silence opponents – which had been categorically denied by the power led at the time by Pierre Nkurunziza. His successor, Evariste Ndayishimiye, called on the CNC in January 2021 to “ settle their differences » with the press organs sanctioned following the crisis born in April 2015 from the decision of Pierre Nkurunziza to run for a disputed third term.
