“The forcible transfer of journalist Comlan Hugues Sossoukpé by Côte d’Ivoire to Benin, despite his refugee status in Togo, sends a worrying message to journalists across the region,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “He must be released immediately and unconditionally. Such aggressive, transnational tactics illustrate a cross-border collaboration to muzzle a critical journalist.”

On July 14, 2025, a judge at Benin’s Court for the Repression of Economic Offences and Terrorism (CRIET) upheld Sossoukpè’s detention in the southern city of Ouidah, pending a judicial investigation on charges of inciting rebellion, inciting hatred and violence, harassing through electronic communication, and apology for terrorism, according to a copy of the decision seen by CPJ.

Sossoukpè was in Côte d’Ivoire to cover a government conference when he was arrested. He has been living in Togo since 2019 and has held refugee status there since receiving threats in Benin, where he is from, related to his work.

Sossoukpè told Maximin Pognon, his lawyer, who spoke to CPJ, that four people identifying themselves as Ivorian law enforcement officers and a fifth as a “colonel of the gendarmerie” asked him to respond to a summons. But Sossoukpè recognized two of them as Beninese police officers, Pognon said.

Sossoukpè said he demanded that they bring him before a judge, which they agreed to, but did not. Instead, they seized his phone and computer, took him briefly to an Ivorian law enforcement headquarters, and then escorted him aboard a plane that took him to Benin.

Two people close to the case who asked not to be named for privacy reasons said that during the days before his arrest, Sossoukpè had alerted his friends that there were kidnapping plans against him.

CPJ’s calls and WhatsApp messages to Andy Kouassi, public relations director of the Ivorian ministry of communication, and to Wilfried Léandre Houngbédji, spokesperson for the Beninese government, as well as CPJ’s email to the Ivorian gendarmerie, went unanswered.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

In its March 12 decision, the HAAC also withdrew Benin Web TV director Paul Arnaud Deguenon’s press card over his outlet’s January 21 and 23 reporting that said the HAAC presented “erroneous” figures to parliament’s budget committee and its president demanded a new official car. 

“The media regulator should allow Bénin Web TV and journalist Paul Arnaud Deguenon to resume reporting,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “Benin’s High Authority for Audiovisual and Communication should respect journalists’ right to question the management of public funds, instead of punishing Bénin Web TV for scrutinizing the regulator’s finances.”

Deguenon attended a public hearing at HAAC’s offices on March 11 where he was ordered to publish an apology as the regulator said the journalist failed to provide evidence to support his outlet’s allegations.

In response, Bénin Web TV said that its journalism was based on facts and precise terms, with no desire to harm the HAAC. The media outlet published three letters from the HAAC and Deguenon’s responses, explaining that its reporting was based on the HAAC’s own 2025 budget presentation and public statement.

In its decision, the HAAC said that “Deguenon reoffended on the same day in his baseless accusations” and had “sharply attacked” the regulator.

The HAAC’s indefinite suspension of Benin Web TV appears to contravene its 2023 authorizationof the outlet’s operations, which specifies that suspensions for noncompliance with a formal regulatory notice may not exceed one month.

In January, the HAAC suspended six outlets and withdrew a press card for one of the outlet’s journalists, accusing them of publishing false allegations, without specifying, and of running unauthorized websites. The HAAC has not reversed the order.

CPJ’s calls to the HAAC to request comment were not answered.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“We are relieved that Beninese authorities have finally freed investigative journalist Damilola Ayeni, who was falsely accused of being a jihadist by police apparently intent on soliciting a bribe for his freedom,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator. “We hope that Ayeni will be allowed to continue his important reporting without further harassment and that authorities will take firm action against any police officer who has brought Benin into disrepute and wasted resources that should be used to counter real extremism, not journalism.”

Ayeni, the editor of Nigeria’s Foundation for Investigative Journalism, was released on Friday afternoon after appearing before the special prosecutor at the Court for the Repression of Economic Offences and Terrorism (CRIET) in Benin’s capital of Porto-Novo, according to Ayeni’s lawyer, Elie Dovonou, and the journalist himself, who both spoke to CPJ by phone, and a statement by the media outlet.

Ayeni was arrested on August 31 while on the second leg of a cross-border environmental investigation in the north of Benin. In its report announcing the release, the FIJ said Ayeni was handed over to Nigerian authorities but would remain in Benin Republic “for a little longer.”

In a September 5 report announcing Ayeni’s detention, the FIJ said a man who identified himself as the commissioner of the Central Police Station of Parakou in Benin had demanded a bribe of 800,000 CFA (US$1,315) to release the journalist.

FIJ attributed its reporter’s release to the “combined efforts of sustained media pressure, relentless work by the Nigerian Embassy in Benin, and legal representation and advocacy efforts facilitated by the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

On August 31, police officers in Benin’s north western Pendjari National Park arrested and detained Ayeni, an editor with the privately owned Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), as he was taking pictures at the park for his reporting on environmental conservation, according to reports by FIJ and the privately owned LibreExpress news site, as well as Ayeni’s lawyer, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the case, and FIJ founder Fisayo Soyombo, both of whom spoke by phone with CPJ.

Soyombo emphasized that Ayeni had gone to Benin on assignment for FIJ and said the arrest was tragically ironic because he believed the local government would have appreciated Ayeni’s coverage.

The officers accused Ayeni of involvement with a jihadist terror movement and held him at the police station in the northern city of Parakou, until September 5, when they moved the journalist to Cotonou, Benin’s largest city. He is expected to be questioned by officers with the police’s criminal brigade in Cotonou before being presented at the Court for the Repression of Economic Offences and Terrorism (CRIET) in the capital of Porto-Novo and charged with alleged terrorism, according to a separate report by the FIJ, Ayeni’s lawyer, and a report by the privately owned Benin Web TV news site.   

“Authorities in Benin should immediately and unconditionally release journalist Damilola Ayeni, swiftly drop all legal proceedings against him and ensure he is able to work freely and safely,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator in Durban, South Africa. “Ayeni’s detention and allegations that he is a terrorist are outrageous. A cursory search online would show that he is a recognized and published journalist, not a terrorist.”

Ayeni’s lawyer told CPJ on September 7 that he had yet to speak with the journalist and could not confirm the status of the case against him or under which laws he may be prosecuted.

Soyombo said that on August 31 FIJ received a text message from Ayeni saying, “I have just been arrested,” but the message was quickly deleted. An FIJ staffer immediately called Ayeni’s line. Ayeni picked up and told his colleague that he was only held briefly because there were security concerns in the area and that he had been released, according to the FIJ reports and Soyombo. However, Ayeni was unreachable by phone soon after that call and the FIJ could not determine what had happened to him.

On the night of September 4, a friend of Ayeni told Soyombo that he received a voice message from a man claiming to have been released from a detention facility at the Commissariat Central Police Station in Parakou. That man told Ayeni’s friend that Ayeni was detained at the same Parakou police station and was scheduled to be tried on allegations of involvement with a jihadist militant movement.

On September 5, Soyombo told CPJ that he received messages from someone claiming to be the commissioner at the Parakou police station saying that Ayeni had been accused of involvement with a jihadist movement. The alleged commissioner also demanded 800,000 CFA (US$1,315) in exchange for Ayeni’s release, according to Soyombo and another FIJ report. Soyombo said he refused and asked for a video call to confirm Ayeni’s safety and to see the caller, but the person declined. Soyombo also said the alleged commissioner also did not answer questions about the basis for the allegations against Ayeni.

Soyombo told CPJ that FIJ later sent a representative to the Parakou police station, where police officers confirmed that they had indeed arrested Ayeni but said that he had been released from the station.

Reached by CPJ on September 7, Francisca Omayuli, the spokesperson for Nigeria’s foreign affairs ministry, did not respond to questions about Ayeni and requested to be contacted via messaging app. She later told CPJ by messaging app that she would make the necessary inquiries and respond, but had not done so by the time of publication.

A Benin police officer at Parakou, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, told CPJ that Ayeni was expected to be questioned by the criminal brigade unit, but did not have further details about Ayeni’s prosecution. The officer who spoke to CPJ is not part of the criminal brigade unit. A spokesperson for the Benin police, Eric Yerima, told CPJ on the same day that he was not aware of Ayeni’s arrest.

CPJ’s calls to a contact number listed on the website of the Nigerian embassy in Benin did not connect. CPJ also sent messages to an email listed on the website but received no response. 

Benin government spokesperson Wilfried Léandre Houngbédji declined to comment on the matter and asked CPJ to contact the police.

In 2022, police officers in Benin arrested Dutch journalist Oliver van Beemen and Beninese journalist Flore Nobime while they were reporting at Pendjari park and accused them of espionage, according to a report by South Africa’s privately owned Mail & Guardian news site. The journalists were later released without charge.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

On August 8, Benin’s High Authority for Audiovisual and Communication, or HAAC, which regulates the country’s communications sector, indefinitely suspended operations of the privately owned press group La Gazette du Golfe, including its TV, radio, print, and online outlets, according to a copy of the decision and two of the group’s staff members, who spoke with CPJ and requested anonymity for safety reasons.  

Separately, on August 10, Burkina Faso suspended “until further notice” the privately owned outlet Radio Oméga, according to a statement by the government’s information service and a member of the broadcaster’s staff, who spoke with CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing security concerns.

Both suspensions stem from the outlets’ coverage of the recent coup in Niger.

“Authorities in Benin should reverse their suspension of La Gazette du Golfe, and Burkina Faso authorities should also lift their suspension of Radio Oméga at once,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in Durban, South Africa. “Journalists should be free to provide information about political developments in West Africa, such as regional responses to the coup in Niger, without fear of reprisal.”

In its decision, the HAAC accused La Gazette du Golfe of failing to respect the regulator’s August 3 statement telling the media to “scrupulously respect constitutional and legal provisions” when dealing with information condoning coups in Africa and the region.

When contacted via messaging app, HAAC Secretary-General Julien Pierre Akpaki said he was traveling and could not respond to questions because he did not have reliable internet. Another HAAC representative told CPJ by phone that the suspension of La Gazette du Golfe was related to its August 8 broadcast criticizing possible military intervention in Niger by neighboring states. That representative requested anonymity because they were not allowed to make public comments.

Benin has offered to contribute troops if the Economic Community of West African States uses military force to reinstate Niger President Mohamed Bazoum, who was ousted by soldiers on July 26. Niger’s new military rulers said Monday that they planned to prosecute Bazoum for treason.

Burkina Faso’s official government information service said that authorities suspended Radio Oméga over an August 10 interview with Ousmane Abdoul Moumouni, a spokesperson for Niger’s Council of Resistance for the Republic, which was established to reinstate Bazoum. The statement described Moumouni’s interview as “peppered with insulting remarks against the new Nigerien authorities.”

Burkina Faso, which had two coups in 2022, has warned that it would regard military intervention to reinstate Bazoum as “a declaration of war” against itself as well.

Radio Oméga said in a statement that the state security department of the police summoned and questioned the outlet’s editor-in-chief, Abdoul Fhatave Tiemtoré, on August 11 about his interview with Moumouni. The police held Tiemtoré for several hours before allowing him to leave.

Radio Oméga condemned the suspension as “unfair and unfounded” and said the decision followed “numerous death threats” against its staff by people claiming to support Burkina Faso’s government and calling for the broadcaster to be suspended.

CPJ previously documented threats by government supporters against Radio Oméga reporter Lamine Traoré over his coverage of a meeting between Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traoré and civil society organizations.

CPJ did not receive responses to phone calls and an email sent to Burkina Faso’s government spokesperson, or text messages sent to Fidèle Tamini, general secretary of Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Communication.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

On December 19, an officer with the police criminal brigade called Ahouansè, news director of the privately owned internet radio station Crystal News, and asked him to appear the following day at a police station in Porto-Novo, the capital, according to news reports and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ by phone. When Ahouansè arrived at the station on December 20, officers arrested him and held him for 48 hours, he said.

Ahouansè was released on bail on December 22, and is due to appear in court on February 13 to face charges of spreading false news aimed at disturbing the peace, according to those sources. If convicted, he faces up to six months in prison and a fine of 500,000 Central African francs (US$807), under Benin’s digital code.

“Benin authorities must drop the charges against journalist Virgile Ahouansè and reform the country’s digital code to ensure journalism is not criminalized,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “Journalists in Benin should not worry that their work may land them in prison or under criminal investigation.”

The charge against Ahouansè stems from his investigation published December 14, 2022, which accused police of carrying out extrajudicial killings, the journalist told CPJ. During his detention, authorities questioned him about that investigation for more than five hours.

Upon his release, the special prosecutor at the Court of Repression of Economic Offenses and Terrorism imposed bail conditions requiring Ahouansè to surrender his passport, not leave the country, and return to the police station every Friday, according to the journalist and those news reports.

CPJ has previously documented how authorities use Benin’s digital code to jail journalists for their work. CPJ’s calls and messages sent via messaging app to Benin police spokesperson Roger Tawès did not receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.