Guinea Minister Censors All Private Radio Stations
As Zimbabwe braces for more strikes

By the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)
The Minister of Information of Guinea, Boubacar Yacine Diallo, on 15 January 2007 ordered all private and community radio stations not to broadcast any material on the ongoing general strike by the country's workers protesting against the high cost of living and other national concerns.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) correspondent reports that Yacine Diallo issued the directive in separate visits to the various radio stations and threatened to confiscate the broadcasting equipment of any station that disobeyed the gag orders.

The correspondent said that the minister, who is the former chairman of the media regulator, the National Council for Communication (CNC), told the journalists, "I still control the CNC and I assure you all that all the security forces are on the alert".

On the state media, the correspondent reported that Yacine Diallo has assumed the control of the state radio and television stations and personally edits the news for broadcasting.

Following the government censorship orders, the private newspapers have also stopped publishing in solidarity with their colleagues in the electronic media.

The two main trade unions, the National Confederation of Guinean Workers (CNTG) and the Guinean Workers Union (USTAG), and the opposition parties want President Lansana Conte to step down from power as a result of his prolonged ill-health and other national concerns, including the general situation of undemocratic governance, corruption, and the impoverishment of the population.

The MFWA condemns the imposition of censorship on the media in Guinea as a gross violation of freedom of expression, and a threat to peace, stability and democracy in a country that has been near collapse into violent conflict for some years now.

The MFWA calls on the government to lift the censorship immediately. The organisation also urges democratic leaders in the ECOWAS to pressure the Guinea government to initiate steps to democratise governance.

Guinea, the last country in West Africa to introduce independent broadcasting, opened up the airwaves for private broadcasting in early 2006.