Guinea ALERT: Newspaper suspended three months for critizing a minister

Friday, September 19, 2008

The National Communications Council (CNC), the media  regulatory body in Guinea on September 15, 2008 suspended  La Vérité, a Conakry-based weekly newspaper, for  three months, for allegedly using an “offensive  language” that the CNC said could  “undermine the honour  and dignity” of the public.
The newspaper will be out of circulation till December 15.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s  correspondent reported that the paper’s managing editor,  Thiernodio Diallo and his reporters have also been banned from establishing or working in another media outlet during  the period of the suspension.

The correspondent said the CNC also accused the newspaper of violating the ethics of the profession.

In its September 12 edition, La Vérité newspaper in an article headlined: “Gentlemen’s agreement broken!’’ claimed that a minister (whose name was not mentioned in the article) had done a disservice to the country “the axis of evil especially as a public insulter and expert in dirty jobs and intrigues”. This the CNC found to be insulting to the public.


The Media Foundation for West Africa