Burundi Recently Lifted a Ban on BBC After Nearly 3 Years

Burundi’s government recently lifted sanctions against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), nearly three years after it prohibited the broadcaster from operating in the country.

The Burundi National Communication Council (CNC) announced on March 30 that it had allowed the BBC to reopen its offices and resume its services.

“You remember that we had authorised their reopening, but there were some few formalities which were needed, and now they are free to operate once again in Burundi,” said Vestine Nahimana, the CNC president.

The CNC withdrew the BBC’s license, accusing it of running afoul of Burundi’s press freedom laws as well as engaging in unprofessional conduct. Nahimana said that the broadcaster complied with the conditions set by the government.

Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye. (Indundi TV/YouTube)

BBC Radio and Voice and America were suspended in May 2018 just two weeks before a constitutional referendum designed to empower former president Pierre Nkurunziza and enable him to rule until 2034. The CNC had accused the BBC of impugning Nkurunziza’s reputation after the BBC published an investigation into secret torture sites run by the government to silence political dissenters. Nkurunziza’s administration dismissed the report as “fake news.”

However, Nkurunziza died unexpectedly of heart failure in 2020 after losing the presidential election to Evariste Ndayishimiye, who was then installed months ahead of schedule by the Constitutional Court, Burundi’s supreme authority on constitutional law. Since entering office, Ndayishimiye has eased restrictions on media outlets.

Burundi is considered among the worst countries in the world for press freedom but it was ranked 147 out of 180 countries in press freedom in 2021, an improvement from 2020 when it was position 160, according to to the World Press Freedom report. While journalists in the country, one of the world’s poorest, have felt more optimistic about press freedom since Ndayishimiye took power, Ndayishimiye nonetheless received negative press coverage after he publicly attacked Esdras Ndikumana, a reporter for French public radio broadcaster Radio France Internationale (RFI), for reporting on the country’s faltering COVID-19 response.