Burkina Faso Fines French Broadcaster Canal+ 200 Million CFA Francs Over Free Access to State TV

Burkina Faso’s media regulator has slapped French broadcaster Canal+ with a second, much larger fine, accusing it of failing to provide free access to state television channels, a statement seen by AFP on Wednesday showed. The watchdog imposed a penalty of 200 million CFA francs ($350,000), four times higher than a 50 million CFA franc fine handed down in June for what it called Canal+’s failure to comply with obligations.

Authorities in the military-led West African nation require Canal+, whose pay-TV packages are popular across Africa, to keep state broadcaster RTB’s channels available to subscribers even after their subscriptions expire. Under a 2024 agreement between Canal+ International and the media regulator, the company must continue carrying the public channels free of charge for users in Burkina Faso. But the regulator said the company had failed to comply with a 30-day deadline following the earlier sanction in June over what it called a failure to meet its contractual obligations.

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“The CSC has regretfully noted that its decision has not been implemented within the prescribed deadline” and has therefore ordered Canal+ to pay a fine of 200 million CFA francs, CSC president Louis Modeste Ouedraogo said in a statement dated Monday. The latest fine underscores the increasingly tense relationship between the Burkinabe authorities and French companies operating in the country.

Burkina Faso has been ruled by Captain Ibrahim Traore since he seized power in a 2022 coup. The junta has suspended most major Western media outlets, including France’s RFI radio and France 24 television channel, and expelled several foreign correspondents. It has also been accused of cracking down on dissent, particularly criticism of its handling of jihadist violence that has plagued the country for a decade. The repeated fines against Canal+ are seen as part of a broader pattern of the Traore administration asserting greater control over media and foreign commercial interests.

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