(MFWA/IFEX) – On 22 December 2004, journalists were prevented from covering a press conference address by the head of state, General Lansana Conté. According to MFWA-Guinea, the “red berets” of the Presidential Security Unit’s Autonomous Battalion (Bataillon autonome de la sécurité présidentielle, BASP), a special branch of the army responsible for the president’s security, barred […]
(MFWA/IFEX) – On 22 December 2004, journalists were prevented from covering a press conference address by the head of state, General Lansana Conté.
According to MFWA-Guinea, the “red berets” of the Presidential Security Unit’s Autonomous Battalion (Bataillon autonome de la sécurité présidentielle, BASP), a special branch of the army responsible for the president’s security, barred journalists’ access to the main entrance of the “Sekhoutoureya”, the presidential palace and venue for the press conference. The president was addressing newly-elected local assembly members. The “red berets” claimed that they had received express orders not to allow journalists from any media outlet to enter. Louis Auguste Leroy, director of the press bureau at the president’s office, who witnessed the ensuing scuffle between the journalists and the “red berets”, did not intervene.
Although no specific reasons have been given for incidents in which journalists have been barred from the presidential palace, there is speculation that it has to do with the failing health of the 70-year-old Conté, who has been in office since 1984. The president is rumoured to be too frail to carry on the functions of his office.
In June 2003, two journalists, Azoca Bah, of “Le Lynx la Lance” newspaper, and Aboubakar Akoumba, of “L’Aurore” newspaper, were assaulted by presidential guards for allegedly publishing “irreverent” reports about the president. The two journalists had gone to cover a Koran-reading for the health of the president in Touba, a provincial town 400 km northeast of Conakry, the capital. Their documents, together with Bah’s camera and film, were also seized and trampled on. Two other journalists, Benn Pepito and Cellou Diallo, both of “La Lance” newspaper, were summoned by Internal Security Service (DST) officials and questioned for three days, from 24 to 26 March 2003, with respect to a photograph of the president carried in the 19 March edition (Issue No. 325) of the paper. The photograph, taken at a meeting at the presidential palace the previous day, showed Conté looking tired and frail, and leaning on the shoulder of one of his bodyguards. The DST officials accused the two journalists of having dubious motives in publishing the story and accompanying picture (see IFEX alert of 3 July 2003).
