Freedom of the Press 2008 - Guinea

Status: Not Free
Legal Environment: 21 (of 30)
Political Environment: 29 (of 40)
Economic Environment: 16 (of 30)
Total Score: 66 (of 100)
(Lower scores = freer)

In power since 1984, pressure on the aging regime of President Lansana Conte to cede authority, liberalize political and civil liberties, and reform the economy increased further in 2007. Although Conte's grip on power was pried slightly open, the habit of the 'wily old fox' bullying the press and intimidating his opponents with brutal suppression was unchanged from prior years. The constitution guarantees freedom of the press, but this right is not respected in practice and has been widely abused in the past, including through the enforcement of restrictive press legislation that considers defamation and slander criminal offenses and permits the authorities to censor publications. Unlike earlier years, the number of criminal prosecutions of journalists declined, but the dreaded criminal libel law was still used with potency. In August, a Conakry court imposed suspended sentences of six months each on two private newspaper directors in connection with articles alleging corruption by a former government minister. The directors, Thiernodjo Diallo of La Verite and Abdoul Azziz Camara of Liberation, were also fined $13,000 and ordered to publish the verdict in their newspapers.

The most serious crackdowns against the press took place in January and February during an 18-day national strike called by union leaders protesting rising prices in which security forces killed some 137 people. During the strike, 3 of the 4 private radio stations in the capital Conakry were taken off the air following a presidential decree that authorized the military to muzzle the press, radio, and television which included the shuttering of internet cafes and domestic printing presses. The editor of the private radio station Liberte FM, Mohamed Tondon Camara, was arrested with a staff worker and detained by presidential security guards for two days after the station aired a call-in program where callers asked for the resignation of President Conte. Camara said his release came only after the intervention of the president's brother. Another private radio station, Familia FM, was also forced off the air by presidential guards after a call-in program. The strike was called off after President Conte agreed to transfer most of his powers to an appointed prime minister. Though things have improved for the media since the end of the strike, the crackdown has left the sour taste of self-censorship.

To stem the pressure from the strikes and public disaffection of the Conte regime, Information Minister Boubacar Yacine Diallo ordered all broadcast stations to black out news of the strike on January 15. Soon after, most of the country's private newspapers temporarily ceased operations and two days later, Diallo called Liberte FM to order the station to take off the air its broadcast of an interview of a union leader discussing repression during the demonstrations. Guinea was the last country in West Africa to allow private broadcasting, doing so only in 2006, ending 48 years of state broadcasting monopoly. Once the crisis was over, the new prime minister fired Diallo in May and replaced him with Justin Morel Junior, a popular journalist and communications officer at UNICEF. Diallo had once been a respected independent journalist and newspaper editor and served in 2006 as the founding chairman of the Conseil National de la Communication which is credited with beginning programs to improve the professionalism of media practitioners.

State-owned media provide extensive, mostly favorable coverage of the government but also criticize local-level officials and increasingly report on opposition activities. In addition to the four private radio stations, there is the state-owned Radio Television Guinea (RTG) which continues to be the only television broadcaster and downplayed the severity of the crisis in its broadcasts. Within the private print media, newspapers openly criticize the president and the government. Ten private weekly newspapers publish regularly in Conakry, while a dozen others publish only sporadically. In 2007, the government gave financial subsidies of US$105,000 to private newspapers through the Guinea Association of Independent Editors, which divided the money among various press organizations. It was the second year in a row the government had given the grant, rejecting calls by the editors for a doubling of the subsidy in order to support more publications. About 80 of the 350 media organizations received money from the subsidy during the year. International media operate within the country including Radio France Internationale which was forced to suspend its broadcast for 24 hours during the protests due to power cuts. The government does not directly restrict access to the internet but use of the medium is still very low, largely due to illiteracy, limited access points, and high cost of access. The proportion of the population estimated to have access to the internet is 0.5 percent.