Media of Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso now has a relatively colorful media landscape and press products that are respected across national borders, even if the average quality of the Burkinabe media due to the relatively high production costs and the lack of training opportunities for journalists is still poor.

Since the constitutional revision of 1991 private media in Burkina Faso (again) allowed and, since 1997, the press and media freedom is guaranteed by law.

Media and Press Freedom

Freedom of the media is usually respected by the authorities. However, it has also come in the past few years several times to problematic arrests of journalists. The organization Reporters Without Borders classified Burkina Faso with their Worldwide Press Freedom Index in the upper middle of 68th. As before, the dissemination of false news in accordance with the Information Act 1993 Criminal proceedings can be.

Print media

In addition to the state-owned daily newspaper Sidwaya today appear numerous private print media in Burkina Faso ( in alphabetical order):

Bendre, appearing weekly, critical sheet platform of the MBDHP.
L' Evénement, monthly magazine.
L' Hebdomadaire du Burkina, is published weekly.
L' Indépendant, is published weekly, founded in 1993.
Journal du Jeudi, weekly satirical magazine founded in 1991.
L' Observateur Paalga, appears daily, once a week with a side dish. L' Observateur Paalga was founded in 1973, but had to go to the sankaristischen Revolution in 1984 to cease publication. Since 1991, the traditional newspaper belongs again to the Burkinabe press landscape.
L' Opinion, published weekly.
Le Pays, published daily, founded in 1991.
San Finna, published weekly since 1999.

Due to the economic situation in Burkina Faso, all extrusions appear in small numbers from a few thousand copies, because there are few people who can afford newspapers regularly. For a newspaper copy is usually read by dozens of people.

Newspapers are usually purchased in young street vendors in Ouagadougou, Bobo-Dioulasso and Koudougou, in smaller places sometimes also in the markets, but there are usually only available one to two days after delivery in the larger cities.

Despite the limited supply and the limited distribution of newspapers and magazines play an important role in public information, because they serve many radio journalists as an information base.

TV

Burkina Faso has a television station, the state Télévision Nationale du Burkina ( TNB ). This is operated by the RTB and is under the control of the Ministry of Information. TNB began in 1963 under the name Volta vision.

Radio

To date, the radio is the main source of information for the majority of the Burkinabe population, especially in rural areas.

In addition to the Radio Nationale du Burkina ( RNB) the public operator RTB, which became operational already before independence Burkina Faso in 1959 as a radio Haute- Volta, there are in Burkina increasingly small private regional channels as well as four large independent commercial broadcaster with national significance, Horizon FM, Savane FM, Pulsar FM and Ouaga FM.

Virtually all radio stations Burkina Faso offer programs in French and in local languages.

News agency

Burkina Faso has the Agence d'Information du Burkina ( founded in 1964 as the Agence de Presse Voltaïque ) over a state-run news agency.

Electronic Media

Offer

Electronic media in Burkina Faso still under construction. Most newspapers now have websites where a selection of recent articles and archived issues are usually available. Of importance to a wider audience are further press portals such as that of the private organization Centre National de Norbert Zongo Press or commercial project lefaso.net.

Demand

Generally, electronic media have so far been used due to the weak infrastructure in Burkina Faso only to a limited extent and mainly in urban areas by members upscale educational levels.

A key role for the proliferation of Internet services plays in Burkina Faso - as in other economically weaker countries - communication via e -mail. An e -mail costs much less than a letter shipping and so can be found today in every corner of the cities Internet cafes, which are used by increasingly larger segments of the population.

History

The first public access to the Internet was provided mid-1990s by the state telephone company ONATEL. The first internet cafe in Ouagadougou, the Cyber Café Evasion, offered his services as of 1996. It had to start over an analog modem connection and wrapped the entire e -mail traffic through a single POP account, had to be sent all the emails to, from.

Two years later, private Internet service providers were given the opportunity to provide Internet services. The important for the proliferation of electronic media fast connections via ADSL, however, are only since 2006 in all of Burkina Faso available.

Journalists in Burkina Faso

Most newspaper offices employ only a dozen permanent journalists, in addition some freelance staff and administrative assistants come. Only the state-run media have more human resources. For many small radio stations and volunteers work with, be it in the editorial area or as moderators.

To date, most journalists Burkina Faso do not have professional training. In the past five years, however, the development program of the United Nations has made some efforts to improve the level of training Burkinabe journalists and together with the Burkinabe authorities launched a number of training programs for journalists, particularly to deal with new information technologies.

Footnotes and Sources

Media ( Burkina Faso)

United Nations Development Programme

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