(CPJ/IFEX) – In a 10 August 2000 letter to the president of Guinea’s National Communications Council (CNC), Emil Tompapa, CPJ called on the CNC to immediately and unconditionally reinstate the press credentials of the Conakry-based foreign correspondents Mouctar Bah (Agence France-Presse), Ben Daouda Sylla (Africa No. 1), and Amadou Diallo (BBC). On 28 July, the […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – In a 10 August 2000 letter to the president of Guinea’s National Communications Council (CNC), Emil Tompapa, CPJ called on the CNC to immediately and unconditionally reinstate the press credentials of the Conakry-based foreign correspondents Mouctar Bah (Agence France-Presse), Ben Daouda Sylla (Africa No. 1), and Amadou Diallo (BBC).
On 28 July, the CNC announced that the accreditation of Bah, Sylla, and Diallo had been suspended for two months, beginning 1 August. In its announcement, the CNC accused the three journalists of pursuing a “hidden agenda” and distributing “tendentious and malevolent information on Guinea’s social and political situation.”
The CNC reportedly made this announcement on 28 July, a week before the resumption of the trial of opposition leader Alpha Condé on charges of “endangering the state.” Local and international media and human rights groups have repeatedly denounced this trial on both procedural and substantive legal grounds.
CPJ believes that the CNC ruling is part of a systematic campaign to stifle critical voices in Guinea and, in particular, to block international coverage of the Condé trial. This blatant act of censorship is the most recent in a disturbing pattern of attacks on independent journalism in Guinea.
On around 25 June, according to CPJ’s local sources, the State Prosecutor’s Office in Conakry issued an arrest warrant against journalist Alphadio Modesto Ayibatin after he published a critical article about the Guinean government’s economic policies in the Canadian daily “Le Droit”. Ayibatin, who wrote this article during a recent professional visit to Canada, was served with a court summons for “discrediting and defaming the government” upon his return to Guinea in late June. Fearing imprisonment, the journalist fled the country.
On 28 March, the CNC suspended the private weeklies “L’Oeil” and “Le Soleil” for one month, from 31 March to 30 April. This decision followed complaints lodged by several private businessmen whose alleged malfeasance had been reported in several issues of the two papers.
On 7 April, Abou Sankara, the editor-in-chief of “Le Soleil”, was arrested at his newspaper’s offices in Conakry. Sankara is accused of having launched the new newspaper “Le Soleil Enchâiné” during the one-month suspension of “Le Soleil”, in violation of the Press Code. The CNC seized all copies of “Le Soleil Enchâin锑s first edition and banned it from future circulation.
While Guinea’s 1991 press laws are among Africa’s most repressive, the CNC was ostensibly created to “protect the rights of citizens to access information, prevent an abusive control of state media by the government, and hamper manipulation of public opinion by means of the media,” according to Article 2 of its charter.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the president of the CNC:
– called on the CNC to immediately and unconditionally reinstate the press credentials of Bah, Sylla and Diallo
– expressing the belief that the CNC ruling is part of a systematic campaign to stifle critical voices in Guinea and, in particular, to block international coverage of the Condé trial
– noting that this blatant act of censorship is the most recent in a disturbing pattern of attacks on independent journalism in Guinea
– calling on the CNC to fulfill its mandate by ensuring that the arrest warrant against Ayibatin is withdrawn and that the press credentials of Bah, Sylla and Diallo are unconditionally restored
Appeals To
<conAPPEALS TO:
Mr. Emil Tompapa
President, Conseil National de la Communication (CNC)
Place Boule-Binet, près RTG
Conakry, Guinea
Fax: +224 41 47 97
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
