Officials in Gabon have temporarily banned French state media stations TV5 Monde, France 24 and Radio France International (RFI) for lacking objectivity and balance in the treatment of information relating to Saturday’s general election.
French public radio RFI had said there were concerns of a post-electoral crisis amid an internet shutdown and curfew imposed.
That same day a government spokesman, Rodrigue Mboumba Bissawou, said in a televised address that the shutdown and curfew were to prevent calls for violence spreading, following the vote.
The main opposition candidate, Albert Ondo Ossa, called the security measures outrageous and denounced the electoral process as “orchestrated fraud”.
On Sunday, France Médias Monde, which owns the banned channels, said that it “regrets and is surprised by this provisional suspension, without foundation, which deprives the Gabonese of two of their main sources of reliable and independent information”.
Results have yet to be announced by Gabon’s electoral commission, which has no set deadline for declaring them. Foreign observers and journalists were banned from covering the vote.