Media
GUINEA’S High Authority of Communication should reverse its decision to indefinitely suspend the privately owned news site Dépêche Guinée and ensure the public has unrestrained access to diverse media sources, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.
“The banning of Dépêche Guinée represents an escalation of the Guinean communications regulator’s censorship efforts and reflects a grave disregard for citizens’ right todiversity of information,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa Representative.“The regulator must reverse this decision and work to reverse all restrictions on media outlets banned in the country.”
Guinea’s High Authority of Communication, HAC, regulator banned Dépêche Guinée in a January 27 order following a January 10, 2025 opinion piece that allegedly included “remarks inciting insurrection and disturbance of public order.” The regulator also claimed that Abdoul Latif Diallo, the site’s administrator, could not be reached.
Dépêche Guinée was not accessible in Guinea as of January 29, according to Diallo and two people that spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal.
Diallo told CPJ that he had not received any calls or emails from the HAC and that the cited publication is “in no way an incitement to revolt. The citizen (author) denounced the excesses of power, and the consequences that this can entail.”
The regulator previously suspended Dépêche Guinée in January 2024 for nine months and Diallo for six months, and both were similarly suspended in 2023 for one month.
In May 2024, Guinean authorities revoked the licenses of the media outlets FIM, Espace, Sweet, Djoma, Espace TV station, and Djoma TV, several months after their broadcasting was blocked. Those outlets remain offline, according to two people who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal.
CPJ’s calls to the HAC’s publicly listed number went unanswered.
A.I
Jan. 30, 2025
Tags: Dépêche Guinée
