മാലി, ബുർക്കിന ഫാസോ, നൈജർ എന്നീ രാജ്യങ്ങളിലെ സൈനിക ഭരണകൂടങ്ങൾ റഷ്യൻ സഹായത്തോടെ 'തഫൂക്ക് ടിവി' എന്ന ചാനൽ ആരംഭിച്ചു. ഇസ്ലാമിക തീവ്രവാദികൾക്കെതിരായ പോരാട്ടത്തിൽ തങ്ങളുടെ പ്രതിച്ഛായ മെച്ചപ്പെടുത്താനും പാശ്ചാത്യ മാധ്യമങ്ങളുടെ വിമർശനങ്ങളെ നേരിടാനുമാണ് ഈ നീക്കം. സുരക്ഷാ പ്രതിസന്ധികൾക്കിടയിലും ഭരണകൂടത്തിന്റെ നേട്ടങ്ങൾ ഉയർത്തിക്കാട്ടാനാണ് ചാനൽ ശ്രമിക്കുന്നത്.
Three embattled Russian-backed military governments in Africa's Sahel region have launched a TV channel to bolster their popularity as they fight rampant Islamist insurgencies.
Tafouk TV, which has support from Russia and has been broadcasting out of the Malian capital Bamako since last month, has been serving its viewers with high-octane patriotic celebrations, sterile interviews with officers and officials, and optimistic frontline reportage.
The broadcaster is intended as one pillar of a propaganda network that is being set up and funded by the authoritarian governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger as part of an effort to battle western narratives focused on their battlefield setbacks at the hands of ascendant Islamist insurgencies.
"There is a war for information under way," said Salif Sanogo, who runs the new station and accused western outlets of having staged systematic disinformation campaigns to destabilise the three administrations. "We are the soldiers of information," he added.
The three countries have all been run by their militaries since a string of putsches vaulted ambitious officers into power with promises to stabilise security crises. All three expelled the French, whose forces had been providing assistance, and turned towards Russian paramilitaries.
But their situation has since gone from bad to worse as their foes, which include the powerful al-Qaeda affiliate Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and the Islamic State, have gained ground.
Mali has been left reeling after a co-ordinated offensive by JNIM and ethnic Tuareg separatists in April put its military and their Russian partners on the back foot.
Niger faced down an attempted coup by soldiers frustrated with their commanders' inability to stem incessant losses in late August.
"There are positive things taking place too, but these are never shown on western media," Sanogo said, acknowledging that the security situation was difficult. "We are here to take the initiative, to explain what is happening in the Sahel and to show a side of the Sahel that others will not show," he added.
Russia's paramilitary Africa Corps has been fighting in Mali and is also present in Niamey and Ouagadougou.
Russia Today, a state-owned broadcaster, signed a co-operation and content-sharing agreement with Tafouk TV months before its formal launch in September.
The Russian Ambassador in Mali, Igor Gromyko, visited the Tafouk TV offices in Bamako in June and praised the broadcaster for its role "in the fight against disinformation and cognitive warfare".
"Russia has been offering political and security support, but one of their most effective and widespread offers across all three countries has been the extensive use of propaganda and disinformation networks to boost the legitimacy of the governments," said Luca Raineri, an expert at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa.
Tafouk TV is currently broadcasting three daily news bulletins in French, along with local languages Bambara, Hausa and Moore. It intends to add English and Fulfulde to its linguistic roster, Sanogo said, and to open bureaus in Ouagadougou and Niamey too.
Sanogo said Tafouk TV was also broadcasting live on Facebook, YouTube and TikTok.
"We are not here for propaganda, we are not here to push disinformation, but we are here to inform our populations and international audiences," Sanogo said.
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are banded together under a confederal banner known as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). They have been seeking to bolster their partnership in recent months by creating a string of confederal structures and institutions, including a parliament and a common investment bank.
Tafouk TV will broadcast alongside Voice of Liptako, a new common radio station based in Ouagadougou, while a news agency is intended to be set up in Niamey before the end of the year.
All three countries have similarly invested heavily in savvy digital disinformation networks that have flooded social media platforms across west Africa, including with artificially generated speeches of young Burkinabé leader Ibrahim Traoré.
"They believe they are in a war on different fronts, and one of the main front lines is communication," said Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. "They believe they are being undermined by foreign and independent media outlets, and they want to have to broadcast information," he added.
But as the security situation has deteriorated, the three regimes' authoritarian screws have begun to tighten on the few voices that are brave enough to criticise them or even report on military setbacks.
"The more setbacks they have on the battlefield, the more they want to control the narrative and make themselves look better on the propaganda side," said Ibrahim.
The AES countries have suspended the licences or blocked transmissions of several international broadcasters including Radio France Internationale and France 24, both of which are widely consumed across francophone Africa. They have aggressively hounded independent outlets.
"The situation for press freedom is catastrophic in all three countries," said Alioune Tine, a prominent human rights activist based in nearby Senegal who until recently worked as an independent monitor with the United Nations.
Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali have all arrested or abducted growing numbers of prominent journalists in recent years. Burkina Faso has also forcibly conscripted reporters covering setbacks faced by its military into the ranks. It recently compelled journalists to attend military training.
"If you are an independent journalist, you risk ending up either in prison, in exile or being abducted and never seen again," Tine said.