Danny Yatom previously served as the head of Mossad, Israel’s top spy agency. He signed a letter with around 250 former agents, including two other former spy chiefs, supporting the air force pilots.

“If they wanted to achieve a stoppage of a stream of other letters, they achieved the opposite.”

The Israel Defense Forces responded by saying that anyone who signed the letter would be fired, and Netanyahu slammed the signatories as “an extreme fringe group that is once again trying to break Israeli society from within.”

As talks were underway and the hostages were released, everyone was “hopeful,” said Guy Poran, a retired air force pilot who led the effort to organize the first letter. “We believed Israel was really negotiating toward making a deal.”

Among the letter-writers: Veterans, reservists, ex-spies and military officers, academics and former diplomats, and physicians who’ve spent months serving in Gaza.

But it was short-lived.

Recently, his guests laughed that an alleged coup attempt in Burkina Faso looked staged. The gov. complained.

One guest was arrested & remains imprisoned. Joliba is again suspended, Mohamed unsure of his future.

Free link: wapo.st/4kj21ox

But they hadn’t expected the public outcry.

For many, the suspension was seen
as a bridge too far. Facing massive public pressure, the media authority relented, shortening the suspension.

As Mohamed doubled down, defending his right to free speech in a sharply worded editorial, so did the media authority.

Joliba TV, it announced, would be taken off the air for two months

Inside the station, there was turmoil:

It wasn’t long before the first warning arrived, then things snowballed.

Mohamed said pressure on Joliba was high. The warnings had leaked in the press, and junta supporters harassed young Joliba employees.

He recounted receiving Facebook messages labeling him a traitor

The junta was popular, and there wasn’t always appetite to criticize it. Even Mohamed’s wife wondered if he should tone it down.

But he saw his job as being unafraid to criticize the military officers + raise the issue of a return to democracy.

Mohamed grew up during a time when Mali was a democratic model in the region, with a vibrant free press. When military officers took power in 2020, he was skeptical.

But it wasn’t until the government started shutting down French stations in 2022 that he had a premonition.

Mohamed, a 40 year old broadcaster at Joliba TV, is a journalist’s journalist. He’s studied the profession, teaches it & adores it. He also loves his country.

He left for school but always knew he’d come back to Mali. After the 2012 crisis, he saw his role as helping rebuild it

Thank you so much @laddecker.bsky.social

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