Burkina: The CNP/NZ calls for the fight against terrorism not to be pitted against freedom of expression and of the press

The chairman of the steering committee of the National Press Center Norbert Zongo (CNP / NZ), Inoussa Ouédraogo, called on Wednesday in Ouagadougou, the authorities not to oppose the fight against terrorism to the freedom of expression and of the press, thanks to the celebration of the international day of freedom of the press, we noted on the spot.

By recalling the limits of the approach which consists in opposing the fight against terrorism to the freedom of expression and of the press, he asked to work to obtain the confidence of the populations for a victory over terrorism.

“Following the meetings we had with our authorities through various statements, we drew their attention to the limits of the approach which consists in opposing the fight against terrorism to freedom of expression and of the press”, indicated the chairman of the steering committee of the national press center Norbert Zongo (CNP / NZ), Inoussa Ouédraogo.

For Mr. Ouédraogo, in a context of crisis like the one in Burkina Faso, journalists have an even more important role to play by providing accurate, true and useful information.

According to him, journalists must at these critical moments in the country’s history, push professionalism to its highest level, including the requirement of truth, honesty and plurality which constitute cardinal values of this profession.

“As long as national opinion and the authorities want to recognize the role played by the Burkinabè press in the progress of our nation and particularly at critical moments in its history, it is obvious that it is an actor who has not never débiné but on the contrary, she can say she is proud of what she has been able to bring as a contribution”, underlined Mr. Ouédraogo

For him, in a country like Burkina Faso, the press has often simply prevented the foundations that make “us a nation, a people, from being eroded and leading to the collapse of the building”.

“As always, the press has used its mission of alert from the first moments of this security crisis. Unfortunately, she was not heard, ”he insisted.

According to him, the Burkinabè press has been at the forefront of the fight against terrorism and has always “asked our authorities to flee the scattering, to work transparently, to be satisfied with the truth” and to “work to obtain the confidence of the populations, to avoid summary and extra-judicial executions, and to equip our FDS strongly and qualitatively”.

According to him, some Burkinabè for “designs that we do not know for the moment”, accuse the media of putting their pens, their cameras and their microphones at the service of terrorists.

For the chairman of the CNP/NZ Steering Committee, “those who make this kind of speech have a problem with the truth”.

“These fatwas on the Burkinabè press are part of a Machiavellian plan to demonize the work of journalists, whose only misfortune is to refuse gagging, instrumentalization, the dictation of a single thought and the deification of authority”, he lamented.

“In any case, attacking journalists in the hope of winning the war against terrorism is deluded,” he concluded.

Source: Burkina Information Agency