Benin: RSF condemns the presidential interference undermining public television's editorial independence

"All reports to be broadcast on the 8 o'clock news are systematically sent daily to the office of the presidency for viewing and approval. Some subjects may be rejected," says an employee of the SRTB, the country's public broadcaster. At the end of October, Benin's public broadcasting workers' union SYNTRAPpublicly condemnedthese working conditions, warning about their "inability to serve the people, to offer them diversified programmes to meet their expectations."Since January 2024, Benin's public media, brought together under the SRTBgroup, have been run by an editorial committee made up solely of members of the government, with no representatives from any of the various television channels. This editorial committee is marked by a serious lack of independence and collaboration, dealing a serious blow to the editorial integrity of the public media.

Chaired by former journalist and current Deputy Secretary General and Government spokesperson Wilfried Léandre Houngbédji, the editorial committee members are: Sinatou Saka, a former journalist and member of the president's office; René Talon, from the communications department of the president's office; Marc Layiwola, William Codjo, and Victor Soumon Lawin, representatives of the Ministries of Digitalization, Tourism, Culture and Arts, and Sports, respectively. None of the committee members responded to RSF's request for comments.

This editorial committee was created by presidential decreeon 17 January 2024, soon after the birth of the SRTBin November 2023. For the next two years, the state will remain the sole shareholder of the SRTB, which was created by the merger of the former public broadcaster, Office de radio diffusion et télévision du Bénin(ORTB), and the Mutlimedia center for young adults (CMAJB). The SRTB's board of directors, chaired by Aurelie Adam Soulé Zoumarou, Minister of Digital Media and Digitalization, is also entirely made up of government members.

From editorial interference to self-censorship

Wilfried Léandre Houngbédji, the government's spokesperson who chairs the editorial committee, regularly visits SRT premisesto "ensure that the broadcast information is in keeping with the tastes and colours of the Head of State", confides an employee of one of SRTB's newsrooms who wishes to remain anonymous.Sinatou Saka, the President's representative and member of the editorial committee, receives the news programme's content every day before it is broadcast. The committee, therefore, has the right of life or death over every item presented to it, according to several of RSF's sources. "Many reports are not broadcast," a source close to the committee told RSF, citing "a report filmed at the beginning of the year on the victims of expropriation in Cotonou" as an example. According to another member of SRTB's editorial staff, some critics and members of the opposition have been "censored several times," reflecting "the difficulty of organising adversarial debates." As a result, self-censorship is spreading within the national television channel. "I've learned to adapt to only covering stories that the authorities want to see: what looks good and gives a good image of the country," said a worried journalist. "We know what won't get through."

Since the start of the year, multiple programmes have been taken off the air by the editorial committee, including the cultural programme "Mewi Honto", which means " the facade of the black people's house" in Fon. Some fifteen programmes have been suspended by arbitrary decisions made by the president's office via this committee, without consulting the editorial teams, under the vague premise of"professionalising our productions," explains an internal source.

An outdated model for state media

This new organisation raises concerns about the long-term editorial independence of public broadcasting. "We've never seen a situation like this before, not even during the revolutionary regime," warns former ORTBdirector Georges Amlon. According to Wenceslas Mahoussi, a university professor and expert in information and communication, the creation of an editorial committee - with broad powers and made up solely of members of the government - is a departure from the definition of public service media set out in Article 5 of Law 2015-07 of 20 March 2015 on the Information and Communication Code in Benin. The article states that the public service press is a "State tool for information, education, development and the promotion of moral and cultural values that is neither governmental, private, commercial nor community-oriented [...] it is funded by the State. Like the State, the High Authority for Audiovisual and Communication (HAAC) guarantees its autonomy and independence.

For the past few years, RSFhas been concerned about the political directives imposed on the media in Benin through government "guidance notes" telling newsrooms what information should be published, and through "partnerships" encouraging the media to prioritise reporting on government activities.