Freedom of the Press 2008 - Guinea-Bissau

Status: Partly Free
Legal Environment: 15 (of 30)
Political Environment: 23 (of 40)
Economic Environment: 15 (of 30)
Total Score: 53 (of 100)
(Lower scores = freer)

In 2007, Guinea-Bissau faced significant roadblocks in its efforts to protect media freedoms and build on the gains made in reestablishing civil and political order in 2006. These earlier improvements followed the 2005 return of former military strongman, Joao Bernado "Nino" Vieira who won democratic elections after returning from a long period of exile. Upon election, president Vieira's administration quickly passed a law that provided for freedom of speech and of the press. But the gains made in press liberalization were soon followed by troubling cases of intimidation in the wake of the political and economic crises in 2006.

Various acts of intimidation and harassment of media practitioners that have continued throughout 2007 have dampened the initial enthusiasm that accompanied Vieria's return. Threats faced by journalists attempting to cover the activities of drug traffickers in Guinea-Bissau arguably represent the deadliest threats to press freedom, individual liberties, and personal security in the country since the return of democracy. A fact-finding study by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) concluded that journalists face a "precarious situation," warning that they now live under a permanent fear of Colombian drug gangs and their local accomplices. Cocaine traffickers have frightened many journalists into silence and at least two have fled into exile after receiving death threats in connection with stories they were working on linking drug traffickers with local security personnel, especially members of the marine unit. Allen Yero Embalo, a correspondent for Radio France Internationale, was one such reporter. He went into exile in France after unknown persons broke into his home, stole his camera, video footage of a report on drug trafficking, and over $1,200.

Other acts of intimidation took place in 2007 including the detention of Reuters journalist, Alberto Dabo, who was detained in June for several hours over an error in translating a quote attributed to the interior minister which cited the minister as saying that soldiers were involved in the drug trade. Dabo was threatened with jail but eventually released when he agreed to publicly clarify that the infraction was a translator's error. However, the following month he was again arrested under the orders from the Head of the Navy, who was upset that the British news service, ITN, had cited him as saying that soldiers were involved in drug trafficking. In the end, Dabo was charged with four crimes: defamation, abuse of freedom of the press, violating state secrets, and slander. His case was pending at year's end. In July, four other journalists went into hiding in the wake of police announcement that they should surrender following reports about the connection between the police and drug traffickers. In another act of intimidation, a special police unit, "the Ninjas" seized the camera of a journalist in July because the reporter was accused of taking photographs of the Ninjas as they conducted an operation to clear the streets of hawkers. The camera was later returned after an apology was given by the journalist. Separately, the interior minister ordered Bombolom radio station to close after the station reporter on the murder of a state official and the excessive use of force by the police to stymie riots after his death. The police commissioner refused to enforce the minister's instructions and was later fired. Armed forces similarly failed to close the station which remained open at the end of the year.

The country's only television station continues to be state run, while three private radio stations – Bombolom FM, Radio Pindjiguiti, and Voice of Quelele – compete with the state-run radio broadcaster, Radio Nacional, and the Portuguese-owned public broadcaster, RTP Africa. Three privately run newspapers operate alongside the state-owned weekly No Pintcha. The national printing press is the sole printing plant in the country. It prints all the country's newspapers, and because it is poorly funded, there are delays in publishing the newspapers. The impact of such financial constraints has been particularly severe for the state-owned media because of a lack of government ability to earmark adequate operational funding, as well as the fact that private advertising funds are directed primarily toward the private media sector. No government interference with or attempts to censor the internet were reported in 2007, and 2.5 percent of the population had access to the internet.