Burkina Faso: BF1, the people’s channel

This week, an interview with Issoufou Saré from the media organisation BF1 in Burkina Faso.

Created in 2004, BF1 did not actually start broadcasting until 20 August 2010 in Burkina Faso. Today, the channel has managed to establish a real foothold: it is available throughout Africa on channel 251 of the provider Canal +, in the DTT package recently introduced in the country, and within a range of 50 km from Ouagadougou, even without a set-top box.

BF1, a general-interest channel of the Global Communication media group, seeks to be close to the population. Its editorial line is focused on social issues, with young people at the core of its target audience.

The cogs in the BF1 machine

When he wakes up at 5:15 a.m., a full day of work is already waiting for Issoufou Saré, managing director of BF1. He starts with a morning sport session and then takes his children to school. He enters the BF1 premises at around 7:30 a.m., and won't leave until around 9 p.m.

He starts his working day by reading the day's newspapers. After having caught up with the latest news, he conducts a tour of the six departments of the media organisation. He checks on the progress of the week's projects with each of the department managers. This activity takes up his whole morning. In the afternoon he turns his attention to mail, documents to be signed and meetings to be attended.
The editorial staff is independent of the management:

"There is a chief editor who manages the editorial team and is responsible for editorial management. I never interfere with his work, except when errors creep into the reporting of issues", says the director.

The majority of BF1's journalists come from journalism schools; the others were trained on the job. In partnership with local organisations such as the Association des Journalistes du Burkina (AJB) and the Norbert Zongo press centre, the company has set up a training policy so that its journalists are constantly at the cutting edge of the new techniques of the profession.

It is in this context that BF1 participated in CFI'sFaso Médias 2 de CFI, "a beneficial experience for our journalists and producers" stresses Issoufou. As far as equipment is concerned, the editorial staff works withNX70 cameras, recorders, editing suites and software such asAdobe Premiere Pro. The journalists are currently experimenting with reports created solely by means of an iPhone and software such asCity Producer.

Making the Burkinabe citizen open up

For Issoufou Saré, this is a key objective. The media organisation would like to talk about the "bustling" Burkina of disadvantaged neighbourhoods and the daily routine of the citizen: " we wanted a channel on which the Burkinabe people could recognise themselves", says the young man of 39, a qualified journalist. Since April 2013, he has been responsible for around 60 employees spread across the six operational departments, from technical support through programming to the sales and marketing department. The BF1 headquarters are located in the residential district of Ouaga 2000 in Ouagadougou. The media organisation also has a branch in Bobo-Dioulasso, in the south-west of the country, however. Bobo-Dioulasso is Burkina Faso's economic capital and second city (537,000 inhabitants recorded in 2012).

The leitmotif of the editorial staff is to diversify the information created and to enhance the visibility of the media organisation. In order to give itself a chance of achieving this, BF1 has moved towards new communication tools such as social networks and the internet.
BF1's Facebook page now has 50,000 subscribers and the website – albeit unfinished – has already welcomed a number of visitors:

“We had to create interactivity between us and our viewers. We find out what their expectations are via our social networks and we adapt. It is via the internet that we can reach the diaspora. A certain number of programmes are rebroadcast on the website", points out Issoufou.

A relationship of trust between the Burkinabe people and their media

During the last ten years, Burkina Faso has been consistently ranked among the best performers with regard to freedom of the press in Africa by Reporter sans frontières. This has enabled the news organisations to establish credibility.
The murder of the journalist Norbert Zongo in 1998 caused a great stir throughout the country, prompting it to rethink the way it treats journalists. Today, several laws have been adopted in order to aid them in their work: defamation has been decriminalised and, during the transitional period in 2015, a law enabling access to sources of official documentation came into force.

"Freedom of the press really does exist in Burkina, and efforts have been made via the adoption of several laws, even if, in practice, their implementation is still meeting with a certain amount of resistance", asserts Issoufou Saré.

Despite the financial difficulties experienced by Burkinabe journalists, most of whom struggle to make ends meet, the country has an inclusive and relatively active media landscape.

Up to this point, BF1 has primarily generated its income from advertising and charging a fee for media coverage, a practice that is frowned upon but widespread throughout the country. The notion of social responsibility is taken to heart within the group, which sees the media as a pillar in building a prosperous Burkinabe nation, where learning to live together is crucial.

BF1 is one of the media organisations participating in Faso Médias 2, a CFI project supported by theFrench Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, in partnership with UNALFA.