{"id":36809,"date":"2026-06-11T15:23:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T13:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=36809"},"modified":"2026-06-11T15:23:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T13:23:45","slug":"rsf-slams-arrest-of-malian-journalist-following-junta-criticism","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rsf-slams-arrest-of-malian-journalist-following-junta-criticism\/","title":{"rendered":"RSF slams arrest of Malian journalist following Junta criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned the arbitrary detention of prominent Malian journalist Chahana Takiou, calling for his immediate release.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Takiou, the Publishing Director of the biweekly newspaper 22 Septembre, was remanded in custody early this week after appearing before Mali&#8217;s cybercrime unit. He is being prosecuted for &#8220;undermining the credibility of the state&#8221; after publicly criticizing the country&#8217;s military-led government during the recent Pan-African Media Forum.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>RSF argues the charges are directly tied to Takiou exercising his right to free expression, warning that the case signals a dangerous escalation in the crackdown on independent media under the current military authorities.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Sadibou Marong, RSF\u2019s sub-Saharan Africa director, stated that the detention reflects a growing pattern of intimidation against the press in Mali. He urged the authorities to uphold press freedom and ensure journalists can report without the constant fear of arrest.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16252,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-36809","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"RSF has condemned the arbitrary detention of prominent Malian journalist","published_date":"2026-06-11 15:11:14","news_description":"RSF has condemned the arbitrary detention of prominent Malian journalist","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36810,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36809\/revisions\/36810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}