Chad tightens media controls ahead of elections

An armoured vehicle of Chad's army forces is deployed in N'Djamena on May 10, 2024, a day after the announcement of the results of Chad's presidential election. [AFP] Chad's online news sites voiced concern Monday over measures announced by authorities to tighten media controls just over two months before elections. The Association of Chad's Online Media (AMET) said the decisions by the main media authority "seem to indicate a desire to restrict the activities of online media". Abderamane Barka, head of the High Authority for Audiovisual Media (HAMA), announced last week that any private newspaper, printed or online, that broadcasts sound or audiovisual content "instead of limiting itself to its written articles, will see its publication suspended". The same applies to private media that use Facebook pages to publish information other than "original content", Barka told a seminar with the press on Wednesday. He called for a "continued clean-up of the Chadian media landscape". But media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, known by its French initials RSF, called it a "groundless decision, which jeopardises media pluralism". And expressing its "concerns", AMET said in a statement that the measures "seem to go beyond the legal framework". It comes against a backdrop of restrictions on press freedom in Chad under Mahamat Deby, who was proclaimed head of state by the army in April 2021 when his father, longtime ruler Idriss Deby Itno, was killed by rebels. In May, he won presidential elections that the opposition boycotted and that international observers said were not credible. Parliamentary and local elections are scheduled for December 29. France's President Emmanuel Macron (2nd R), his wife Brigitte Macron (L) and Secretary General of Francophony Louise Mushikiwabo (R) pose for photographs alongside Chad's President Mahamat Idriss Deby during the 19th Summit of the Francophonie at the "Cite internationale de la langue francaise" in the castle of Villers-Cotterets, north-eastern France, on October 4, 2024. [AFP] The killing of a former commander of general intelligence and his son by unidentified armed men prompted an official order last week "to secure the city of N'Djamena" and carry out "systematic searches" for weapons. Heavily armed soldiers were deployed in parts of the capital to conduct the searches. On Saturday, state television announced the replacement of the security minister under a slight government reshuffle. Opposition parties announced last week that they would refuse to take part in the December elections, denouncing a "harmful climate of dictatorship and of terror". "The country is heading towards the final crowning of the regime's complete illegitimacy after a bogus referendum that imposed a rejected constitution and a disastrous presidential election whose results were never recorded, compiled and counted," they said in a statement. In mid-September, the World Organisation Against Torture warned of an increasing number of arrests and detentions without due process by the Chadian intelligence services.

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