On January 21, 2025, the media regulator in Benin, the High Authority for Audiovisual and Communication (HAAC) suspended two newspapers and four news websites, accusing them of unauthorised publications and not being in good standing.
The newspapers in question are L’Audace Infos, whose managing editor, Romuald Alingo, had his press card withdrawn and Le Patriote, whose website has also been suspended.
The online media outlets involved are “Reporter Médias Monde”, “Crystal News”, “Les Pharaons” and the Tik Tok account “Madame Actu”. All the suspensions are “until further notice.” These online media outlets have been “given formal notice to regularize their situations by complying with current press and communications legislation,” the HAAC said.
According to the media regulator, the contents published by the suspended media outlets contain false information in breach of Articles 2 (Integrity and the Public’s Right to Truthful Information) and 6 (Social responsibility) relative to the code of ethics. Concerning Audace Info Newspaper, it is alleged that, aside from the spread of unfounded allegations, the newspaper has been the subject of many complaints and has on multiple occasions violated professional ethics by extorting money from people, according to the Observatoire de la Déontologie et de l’Éthique des Medias (ODEM).
Meanwhile, the Director of publication of Le Patriote, Marcel Zoumenou, contests the decision of the HAAC. In a telephone conversation with the MFWA, Zoumenou attributed the sanctions to a December publication featuring an exiled politician’s criticism of Benin’s President, Patrice Talon as well as a January editorial critical of the army for failing to prevent a border attack in which 28 soldiers died. Zoumenou was summoned to provide proof of the allegations made in the article, which he did in a written response addressed to the Secretary General of the HAAC.
The Director of Publication of Le Patriote also contests the HAAC’s accusation that his newspaper has been publishing daily and online, whereas it was registered as a weekly legacy newspaper. He said the HAAC recently published a list of registered newspapers in Benin, and inadvertently included Le Patriote in the category of “weekly newspapers”, when, in fact, it is registered as a daily.
“This pseudo-offence is, therefore, simply an error on the part of the HAAC. It is quite surprising that the HAAC, which is supposed to have access to the files of every media outlet authorised to operate, should overlook such information and use it as an offence,” Zoumenou added during the telephone interview with the MFWA.
While the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) supports any regulatory measure aimed at sanitizing the media space, we are concerned about the indefinite length of the sanctions and the lack of precision regarding what the affected media outlets should do in order to have the sanctions lifted.
The indefinite suspensions are an extreme measure that can leave the Managements of the affected media enterprises in limbo and frustrate their planning. It also undermines the right to information of the media outlets’ readers and audience. As independent sources of information, these media outlets play a critical role in ensuring that divergent opinions are reflected in public discourse.
The MFWA therefore calls on the HAAC to dialogue with the media outlets involved, with a view to an immediate resolution of the issues to enable them resume operation.
