Guinea: Journalist Suspended for Interviewing Critics of the Government
Media Foundation for West Africa (Accra)
PRESS RELEASE
28 March 2008
Posted to the web 28 March 2008
Francois Ifono, a journalist from the state-owned Guinea Broadcasting Corporation (RTG) was on March 21, 2008, suspended indefinitely by the stations director, Alpha Kabinet Keita for alleged “gross misconduct”.
Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that this followed the participation of two journalists from private newspapers in Ifono’s TV-show, Parasol, on March 20.
The journalists, Aboubacar A. Koumba Diallo, managing editor of the Aurore newspaper and Nouhou Balde, managing editor of the Observateur had both been critical of the Minister of Mines and Geology, Ahmed Kante. Diallo had in the Aurora consistently criticized the minister’s alleged poor handling of mining licences in the country.
The correspondent said the show was abruptly stopped in the middle of broadcast, following a phone call from Issa Conde, the Minister of Communication and Information.
Conde confiscated the tape of the broadcast and handed it over to Kante.
MFWA condemns this extreme censorship of the media and calls on the government to respect freedom of expression and the right of citizens of Guinea to hold and express diverse views on matters of public interest.