Burkina junta orders France 24 off air after Al-Qaeda interview

According to official figures, jihadists control about 40 percent of the country. (AFP/File)
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Updated 27 March 2023

Burkina junta orders France 24 off air after Al-Qaeda interview

  • Burkina Faso has been battling a jihadist insurgency since 2015
  • France 24 has been accused of ‘legitimising the terrorist message’ in the country

OUAGADOUGOU: The military junta in Burkina Faso on Monday suspended all broadcasts by the France 24 news channel in the west African country after it interviewed the head of Al-Qaeda North Africa.
Burkina Faso, which witnessed two coups last year, is battling a jihadist insurgency that spilled over from neighboring Mali in 2015.
“By opening its channel to the head of AQIM (Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), France 24 not only acts as a communications agency for these terrorists but also offers ... legitimacy to terrorist actions and hate speech,” the junta spokesman said, referring to a March 6 interview with AQIM head Abu Ubaydah Yusuf Al-Annabi.
“Therefore the government has decided... to suspend sine die the diffusion of France 24 programs on all national territory,” spokesman Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo said.
The France 24 broadcast was cut around 0900 GMT on Monday, AFP journalists said.
On March 6, France 24 broadcast written replies given by Al-Annabi to 17 questions posed by the news channel’s specialist on jihadist issues, Wassim Nasr.
“We believe this is part of a process of legitimising the terrorist message and we know about the effects of this message in this country,” Ouedraogo later told RTB national television.
In Paris, France 24 hit back branding the Burkinabe government statement “outrageous and defamatory.”
“The management of France 24 condemns this decision and disputes the baseless accusations calling into question the channel’s professionalism,” the broadcaster said.
It stressed that the AQIM chief’s interview had not been directly aired but used as an account to confirm that the group had detained a French hostage who was released in Niger last week.
“The security crisis the country (Burkina Faso) is going through must not be a pretext for muzzling the media,” France 24 said.
The French foreign ministry also issued a statement saying it “regrets” the suspension and voicing “constant and determined commitment in favor of press freedom.”

In December, the Burkina junta suspended Radio France Internationale (RFI), which belongs to the same France Medias Monde group as France 24, accusing the radio station of airing a “message of intimidation” attributed to a “terrorist chief.”
Both RFI and France 24, which cover African affairs closely and are popular in francophone nations, have been suspended in neighboring Mali, which is also run by a military junta fighting jihadist forces.
According to France 24 one third of Burkina’s population watches the channel every week.
The military government in Ouagadougou said it would continue to “defend the vital interests of our people against anyone who acts as a loudspeaker for terrorist acts and the divisive hate speech of these armed groups.”
In March, the ruling junta in Mali announced the suspension of the broadcasting authorization granted to RFI and France 24, after they published stories implicating the national army in abuses against civilians.
One of the world’s poorest nations, Burkina Faso’s soldiers staged two coups in 2022 over the failure to tackle the threat from jihadist groups.
More than 10,000 civilians, troops and police have been killed, according to one NGO estimate, and at least two million people have been displaced.
With jihadists effectively controlling about 40 percent of the country, according to official figures, junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traore vowed to recover lost territory after taking power in September.
But jihadist attacks have escalated since the start of the year, with dozens of soldiers and civilians killed every week.
Former colonial power France has in the past year withdrawn troops from Mali, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic.
The pullout from Mali and Burkina Faso, where French soldiers were supporting the Sahel nations in the long-running insurgency, came on the back of a wave of local hostility.


Inaugural Saudi Festival of Creativity to be held in Riyadh

Updated 01 June 2023

Inaugural Saudi Festival of Creativity to be held in Riyadh

  • Event to be hosted by Motivate Media Group, TRACCS

DUBAI: UAE-based Motivate Media Group, and communications consultancy TRACCS — which started in and is headquartered in Saudi Arabia — have announced the launch of the inaugural Athar — Saudi Festival of Creativity, in Riyadh in November.

The festival aims to bring together the creative and marketing industries in Saudi Arabia to recognize and celebrate them.

Mohamed Al-Ayed, vice chairman of Athar Festival and CEO of TRACCS, said that the event would “enable and empower a new generation of creative-first Saudi marketers and inspire the sustainable development of the country.” 

The festival — which is being held over four days — will include a variety of training courses, roundtables, C-suite sessions, young talent competitions, and an awards ceremony.

It will also boast exclusive programs for women and executive marketers.

The awards will be presented to agencies, networks, and brands, and will be verified by Cannes Lions and Dubai Lynx.

Ian Fairservice, chairman of Athar Festival and managing partner and group editor-in-chief of Motivate Media Group, said: “The festival will be a dynamic and vibrant meeting place in Saudi Arabia where culture, creativity, talent, and technology will collide.

“It is a celebration of the power of creativity in an environment that inspires cultural exchange, collaborative innovation, tangible learning, and training and development.”
 


Russia fines WhatsApp for first time for not deleting banned content

Updated 01 June 2023

Russia fines WhatsApp for first time for not deleting banned content

  • WhatsApp has previously been fined for its alleged refusal to comply with Russian data law and store Russian users’ data on servers in the country

MOSCOW: A Russian court on Thursday fined messenger service WhatsApp $37,080 (3 million rubles) for not deleting banned content, its first fine in Russia for that offense.
Although WhatsApp’s parent company Meta Platforms Inc. was last year banned in Russia as an “extremist” organization, the messenger app — which is widely popular in Russia — has not previously faced penalties for failing to remove prohibited information.
Other Meta services, Facebook and Instagram — now banned in Russia — have been fined over content, as have the likes of Twitter and Alphabet’s Google.
WhatsApp, however, has previously been fined for its alleged refusal to comply with Russian data law and store Russian users’ data on servers in the country.
The RIA news agency reported that Thursday’s fine was due to WhatsApp’s refusal to remove information about the drug Lyrica, whose sale and manufacture are prohibited in Russia.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside US business hours.
Moscow has for years clashed with Big Tech over content, censorship, data and local representation in disputes that escalated after Russia sent its armed forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.


Iran starts trial of female journalist who covered Amini’s death

Updated 30 May 2023

Iran starts trial of female journalist who covered Amini’s death

  • Hamedi, along with another female journalist, Elaheh Mohammadi, who went on trial on Monday, face several charges including "colluding with hostile powers"
  • Iran's intelligence ministry in October accused Mohammadi and Hamedi, both imprisoned for over eight months, of being CIA foreign agents

DUBAI: A Revolutionary Court in Iran on Tuesday began the trial of a female journalist behind closed doors on charges linked to her coverage of a Kurdish-Iranian woman whose death in custody last year sparked months of unrest, her husband said on Twitter.
Mahsa Amini’s death while held by the morality police for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code unleashed a wave of mass anti-government protests for months, posing one of the boldest challenges to the country’s clerical leaders in decades.
A photo taken by Niloofar Hamedi for the pro-reform Sharq daily showing Amini’s parents hugging each other in a Tehran hospital where their daughter was lying in a coma was the first sign to the world that all was not well with 22-year-old Amini.
Tuesday’s trial session “ended in less than two hours while her lawyers did not get a chance to defend her and her family members were not allowed to attend the court,” Hamedi’s husband, Mohammad Hossein Ajorlou, said on Twitter.
“She denied all the charges against her and emphasized that she had performed her duty as a journalist based on the law.”
Hamedi, along with another female journalist, Elaheh Mohammadi, who went on trial on Monday, face several charges including “colluding with hostile powers” for their coverage of Amini’s death.
Iran’s intelligence ministry in October accused Mohammadi and Hamedi, both imprisoned for over eight months, of being CIA foreign agents.
Iran’s clerical rulers have blamed the protests on an array of enemies, including the United States, aimed at destabilising the Islamic Republic.


UAE-based creatives launch Cannes Lions prediction platform ‘The Loudest Roar’

Updated 29 May 2023

UAE-based creatives launch Cannes Lions prediction platform ‘The Loudest Roar’

  • “The Loudest Roar” is an independent project that is not affiliated with Cannes Lions

DUBAI: A team of UAE-based creatives has launched “The Loudest Roar,” an interactive prediction platform for the advertising industry’s premier awards program, Cannes Lions, which takes place next month.

Founded by Chirag Khushalani, Tobbi Vu, Teena Mathew, and Jack Rogers, “The Loudest Roar” aims to become the “fantasy league” for awards festivals, according to a company statement.

Khushalani said: “If the world can have a say on who can win the Superbowl or Premier League, why can’t they cast an eye on the Cannes Lions too?

“It’s a space where everyone has a say on what’s great, and can feel inspired to create more great work.”

The free, gamified platform is open to all. Participants compete for leaderboard positions and prizes, including cash rewards of up to $500 in Amazon gift cards and a portfolio revamp by Pimp My Portfolio. Each player will receive a personalized juror badge that can be shared on social media.

Industry experts and former Cannes Lions jury members such as Rob Schwartz, Tracey Follows and Akhilesh Bagri will also be present on the platform, sharing their advice on judging and creating award-winning work.  

Voting will begin when Cannes Lions releases its shortlists on June 2, and end a few hours before the winners are announced. Participants can view the shortlisted case studies and vote for Grand Prix winners in six categories: Titanium, Innovation, Film, Entertainment Lions for Gaming, Creative Effectiveness, and Creative Business Transformation. 

After the Cannes Lions awards are announced, “The Loudest Roar” will announce the winners chosen by the participants, as well as invite this year’s jury members to share insights into the work that won the Grand Prix trophies.

The company plans to roll out the concept across other award festivals and add interactive features like a simulated jury room.

It also plans to introduce private leagues for agencies and universities to gather insights into how their employees and students think, and how they can improve their entries to be more successful on the awards circuit.

“The Loudest Roar” is an independent project that is not affiliated with Cannes Lions.


Websites linked to Iran’s presidency hacked with images of exile group’s leaders

Updated 29 May 2023

Websites linked to Iran’s presidency hacked with images of exile group’s leaders

  • Iran has been targeted by a series of embarrassing hacks amid the rising tensions over its rapidly advancing nuclear program

DUBAI: A series of websites linked to Iran’s presidency bore the images of two leaders of an exiled opposition group Monday, with others showing the pictures of Islamic Republic’s supreme leader and president crossed out.
An Internet account describing itself as a group of hackers claimed responsibility for allegedly taking down websites. The account GhyamSarnegouni, whose name in Farsi means “Rise to Overthrow,” previously claimed hacking websites associated with Iran’s Foreign Ministry earlier this month.
Iranian state media and officials did not immediately acknowledge the apparent hack. However, Associated Press journalists accessing the sites found them defaced with images of Massoud Rajavi, the long-missing leader of the Iranian exile group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, and his wife Maryam, who is now the public face of the group.
One site bore the slogan: “Death to Khamenei Raisi- Hail to Rajavi.” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi both were targeted similarly in the previously claimed hacked in May.
Iran has been targeted by a series of embarrassing hacks amid the rising tensions over its rapidly advancing nuclear program. That’s included the signal of Iranian state television being targeted, gasoline pumps that provide subsidized fuel being targeted in a cyberattack and government surveillance camera imagery being released, including from a notorious prison.
The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, known by the acronym MEK, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The MEK had angrily condemned a prisoner swap Belgium conducted with Iran on Friday to free an aid worker that saw an Iranian diplomat convicted of being behind a bomb plot targeting the group released.
The MEK began as a Marxist group opposing the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. It claimed and was suspected in a series of attacks against US officials in Iran in the 1970s, something the group now denies.
It supported the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but soon had a falling out with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and turned against the cleric. It carried out a series of assassinations and bombings targeting the young Islamic Republic.
The MEK later fled into Iraq and backed dictator Saddam Hussein during his bloody eight-year war against Iran in the 1980s. That saw many oppose the group in Iran. Although largely based in Albania, the group claims to operate a network inside Iran.