VOA French to Africa broke the news on terrorist attack in Burkina Faso

BBG Watch EXCLUSIVE

Voice of America (VOA) French-to-Africa Service broke the news of what appears to be a Paris-style terrorist attack on a tourist hotel, casino, and restaurant in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso in West Africa.

VOA had live interviews with witnesses and its stringer, who is on the scene.

VOA is now reporting in French, English and other languages that “security forces in Burkina Faso have stormed an upscale hotel frequented by foreigners in the capital where suspected Islamist militants are holding hostages.”

VOA Central English Newsroom is not describing the attackers as “terrorists” in its report, calling them “suspected Islamist militants,” but the French to Africa Service news report does refer to a “terrorist attack.” A BBC report refers to terrorists who attacked the hotel and took hostages as “gunmen.”

The breaking news alert on VOA French to Africa Facebook page has over 2600 shares as of 9:30 PM EST.

BBG Watch CORRECTION

On January 15, BBG Watch reported that Voice of America (VOA) French-to-Africa Service broke the news of a terrorist attack on a tourist hotel, casino, and restaurant in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso in West Africa. We received the information from two reliable high-level VOA and Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) sources, but it appears that they were mislead by mid-level VOA managers who themselves may have been confused. It was in fact the French news agency AFP which broke the story. We apologize for the error.

It is encouraging, however, to learn that according to our sources, VOA French Service “did a good job of covering after the story broke, benefiting from the absence of other media.” There are still some excellent VOA journalists who are generally speaking led by poor managers within a still highly dysfunctional organization.

SEE: CORRECTION VOA did not break Burkina Faso terror news, AFP did, BBG Watch, January 21, 2016