More than 40 journalists in Burkina Faso have completed a compulsory military-style training course framed by the ruling junta as a "patriotic immersion," in a move that press freedom advocates are condemning as a serious threat to editorial independence. The six-day programme, held at the Pabré Police Academy roughly 20 kilometres from the capital, Ouagadougou, was organised by the country's security ministry and brought together journalists from both public and private media outlets.

Video footage broadcast by RTB, the national public television channel, showed Communication Minister Pingdwende Gilbert Ouedraogo — who also serves as the government's spokesman — addressing the 44 participants, who stood at attention in military fatigues and held rifles. "Are you going to be patriotic and professional journalists?" Ouedraogo asked. "Affirmative," the group replied in unison. The minister went further, declaring that "a professional journalist who is not a patriot is a threat to their country" and that one who fails to be actively engaged is "like a passive spectator" at a historic moment for the nation. The academy's director general described the course as a way to immerse journalists in the "operational realities and values" that guide the country's defence and security forces.

Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in West Africa's Sahel region, has been engulfed for more than a decade by deadly jihadist violence linked to groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. Captain Ibrahim Traore seized power in a coup in 2022 and has since pursued a stridently nationalist, anti-Western agenda under the banner of reclaiming national sovereignty. The new training requirement for journalists follows a similar mandatory programme introduced last year for high-school students sitting their final leaving examinations.

The measure has drawn sharp condemnation from press freedom organisations. "Journalists are not soldiers and must not be turned into mouthpieces for the war effort, dressed in military uniforms and with weapons in their hands," said Sadibou Marong, sub-Saharan Africa bureau director at Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Yao Noël, president of the Union of Journalists of the Free African Press (UJPLA), echoed the concern, stating that exposing journalists to military and patriotic ordeals constitutes "an attack on press freedom and the safety of journalists."

The training is taking place against an already dire backdrop for media freedom in the country. Numerous outlets have been suspended under the junta, and rights groups report that dozens of journalists critical of the authorities have been forcibly conscripted and deployed to the front lines. One journalist, Serge Oulon, remains detained two years after being abducted in Ouagadougou. The new annual "immersion" requirement signals what observers see as an accelerating effort to align the press with the military's wartime narrative, blurring the line between independent reporting and state propaganda.