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With the death on Monday of Guinean President Lansana Conté, uncertainty hangs over what--or who--is to follow. Yet, as recently as last week, coverage of the poor health of the reclusive autocrat, who ruled this mineral-rich but poor West African nation since 1984, proved risky for the Guinean independent media.
Ask Souleymane Diallo, a veteran journalist and press leader
in Guinea, who was summoned to the office of a presidential guard officer on
December 17 to discuss his weekly La Lance's decision to publish a front-page
photograph showing a weak, haggard Conté. "We wanted to bring, at a minimum,
some clarity about [Conté's] health because for a week we have been receiving
phone calls every night telling us President Conté is dead," Diallo told CPJ
earlier this week. Instead, the presidential guard told Diallo the
photo was "shocking," he said.Guinean journalists like Diallo were harassed for attempting to pierce the secrecy surrounding the late president's deteriorating health, which fueled constant rumors. Speculations abounded in October 2006, for instance, when Conté failed for the first time to appear on national television for his annual Independence Day address. State-controlled daily Horoya published written remarks instead, but journalists Ibrahima Sory Dieng and Alhassane Souare were suspended--officially for what was termed a "serious mistake"--after failing to run a photo of Conté with the story. More recently, in May, Conté's government suspended the weekly La Croisade for two months and banned its editor, Fadjimba Sayon Keita, for the same period over a story discussing the health of the former first lady.
On Tuesday, as the army seized control of the capital,
Independent Guinean journalists I have spoken with said the
situation was calm, but confusing. With no commercial activity and people
staying at home, most radio stations in
With the traditional media virtually paralyzed,
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