This country’s progression toward embracing democracy makes it hard to believe that the “Guinean Massacre” occurred less than a year ago. On September 28, 2009, military soldiers violently dispersed a banned opposition rally at a stadium in the capital Conakry, killing dozens of people and assaulting at least a dozen journalists covering the gathering. Nasser Diallo, a reporter with Conakry private station Radio Nostalgie, managed to escape death on that tragic day and has continued broadcasting from exile. “This new law is a huge relief for me,” said Diallo, who broadcasts a radio show on Blogtalkradio from a mini studio in his Brooklyn home. “Its entry into force will give us a hope of having an independent press.”
The new press laws
replaces a 1991
press code that infamously allowed, among other things, dead people to be plaintiffs in
defamation lawsuits against journalists accused of causing outrage to their
memory.
In lieu of prison
sentences, journalists now face fines, ranging from 500,000 to 20 million
Guinean francs (US$100 to US$4,000). “The paradox is that the fines are so high
that journalists think they prefer prison,” said Boubacar Algassimou Diallo,
political editor of the private weekly Le
Lynx, the largest circulation newspaper in the country. He explained
that printing costs could account for as much as 67 percent of the budget of
producing a newspaper, let alone pay a fine. “When you say 5 million Guinean
francs (US$975), a journalist prefers to go to prison for three days. He
knows that once in prison, with the pressure of Media Foundation of West
Africa, CPJ, and Reporters Without Borders, he will be released,” he added.
In a special report
released this week—“Guinea: Journalists
are the Forgotten Victims of Violence”—London-based anticensorship organization Article 19
expressed concern that the new law upholds “a number of restrictions incompatible with international standards
and good practice” such as “offenses of libel against the Head of State,
slander and false report.”
Notwithstanding, for the
first time, the press law includes provisions recognizing the country’s growing
electronic media: More than 20 news websites (often based abroad) have
correspondents in Guinea.
“Online media is filling the gap of information resulting from the absence of
private dailies. They are inevitable,” according to Diallo of Le Lynx. Under the new law, online journalists
will be entitled to press cards so long as they can show a master’s diploma in
journalism or two years of professional experience, explained Amadou Tham
Camara, who heads the Guinean Association of Online Press (AGUIPEL). The new law
requires all news sites to register with the new media regulatory agency and
identify their local correspondents, who will act as their legal
representatives, he told CPJ. The agency will have the power to order the
suspension or ban of websites after repeated offenses.
Abdoulaye
Diallo, New York bureau chief
of Guinéenews,
a leading independent news site based in Canada, participated in the drafting
of the new legislation, welcomed the law creating a new media regulatory agency
known as HAC. “It essentially provides guarantees for the body to become more
independent from state/government control by providing more representation and
control over media and press to private news organizations and corporations,”
he wrote in an e-mail.
The online platforms
have opened the doors for Guineans all over the world to participate in the
electoral process and influence the debates at home. On Election Day in New York for instance, the nonprofit organization Alliance Guinea enlisted
volunteers at Columbia University to sift through thousands of text and e-mail
messages reporting voting incidents in Guinea. The reports were collected
through crisis reporting platform Ushahidi. Alliance
Guinea co-founder Jennifer Swift-Morgan, told CPJ
via e-mail that their efforts included regular TV and radio spots
“encouraging everyday people to be active in monitoring the elections
themselves and texting in what they see” before, during, and after the polls. In
Conakry, Diallo
of Le Lynx pointed out that the Ushahidi
citizen reporting initiative faced the challenge of verifying the credibility
of the reports it received. Swift-Morgan said they collected several hundred useful
messages that were mapped and shared with the electoral commission CENI as well as national and
international media tracking the elections.
As the international
community praises Guinea
for having a successful democratic election, the country awaits a scheduled runoff
on July 18. The Supreme Court has to make a decision regarding recent allegations
of politicians manipulating the counting of votes to confirm the accuracy of
the numbers of the two leading candidates. Earlier this month, AGUIPEL suspended
the membership of Guinee24 news
website on the grounds that it violated electoral regulations by publishing
undocumented polls favoring candidate Alpha Condé, Camara told CPJ.
Mariama Keita is an intern in CPJ’s Africa
program. Mohamed Keita is CPJ’s Africa
advocacy coordinator.
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From the death of the late President Conte to the decapitation of short lived erratic junta leader,Captain Mousa Dadis Camara, Guinea's political landscape is indeed progressively revolutionizing the media architecture across one of West Africa's complex political nexus.
Thanks to the vibrant Guinean civil society, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the patriotism of Transional leader, Sekouba Konate, the Guinean Armed and Security Forces have come to terms with the reality of Guinea's long awaited change.
The new media legislation will indeed usher a paradigm shift that would pave the way for a media free Guinea in a sustainable democratic dispensation for the embattled West African nation.It will further lay the foundation for a vibrant democratic culture with the media as an all encompassing tool of citizen empowerment, and the norturing of institutions that are key to democratic ideals.
This article is very timely as it has pondered the important role of Guinea's media in the long awaited democratization process.
Mariama Keita and Mohamed Keita could therefore not have said it any better. Indeed a well written one.