Manifestations de lycéens : Quand France 24 se plaint de la couverture des médias américains
It's a case of the biter bit. The French television channel France 24 has complained about the American media's coverage of the high school student protests in France. France 24 refers to it as a "magnifying and sometimes distorting mirror." It was the person on the set who first raised the question of whether "American journalists exaggerate and distort the truth when they cover French news."
After a lengthy discussion on the development of French and American societies, television correspondent Mathieu Mabin, based in Washington, asserts that the headlines are alarmist and that it's undoubtedly even worse for 24-hour news channels. "In this country, which records approximately 250 incidents involving firearms in middle and high schools each year, in this country where about twenty students die each week from overdoses in schools, it is indeed possible to find apocalyptic-sounding stories on the front pages of the mainstream media based on a student protest in France with zero deaths. We're used to paradoxes," he fumes.
Yet, this same media outlet is banned from broadcasting in several West African countries. And the channel is generally accused of biased news coverage, in other words, of being a magnifying, or even distorting, reflection of the reality in the countries concerned. The most recent example is Guinea, where France 24 was suspended last September, with the withdrawal of its correspondents' accreditations, after referring to Mamady Doumbouya as a "coup leader."
The three countries of the Sahel Alliance have successively suspended or banned the broadcasting of France 24 within their respective territories. Mali was the first to decide on a suspension in 2022. The government of Assimi Goïta accused the channel of espionage and spreading disinformation. Bamako was followed in 2023 by Ouagadougou. Burkina Faso, under Ibrahim Traoré, criticized the French channel for being "a platform for legitimizing terrorist actions." Niger also took action, first in 2023, then again in 2026. In these countries, the channel uses alternative channels to circumvent the sanctions and remain accessible to its target populations.
Outside of West Africa, there is Togo, but also Algeria, where France 24 had its accreditation withdrawn by Algiers after the 2020 legislative elections for "manifest and repeated hostility." Senegal is not exempt, as in 2023, the government of Macky Sall issued a formal notice to the channel for its "biased and subversive" coverage of socio-political unrest.
And it is this same media outlet, accused in several African countries of lacking balance, which today accuses the American media of being magnifying and distorting mirrors of the truth.
Commentaires (7)
Euh, Doumbouya est bel et bien arrivé au pouvoir par un putsch... Cette suspension est donc parfaitement illégitimes. Sinon aucun média américain n'a été suspendu donc je ne vois pas l'objet de la comparaison.
Participer à la Discussion
Règles de la communauté
💡 Astuce : Utilisez des emojis depuis votre téléphone ou le module emoji ci-dessous. Cliquez sur GIF pour ajouter un GIF animé. Collez un lien X/Twitter, TikTok ou Instagram pour l'afficher automatiquement.
Se connecter
Commentez avec votre profil, votre photo, et soyez averti des réponses.