Guinea’s media regulator struck hard this week. The High Authority of Communication (HAC) banned France 24 from broadcasting across the country, with immediate effect, in a decision made public on September 16 and 17. Guinean outlets describe it as a ban, which is harsher than the « suspension » reported in some early summaries.
The spark was a single word. While covering President Mamadi Doumbouya’s visit to Ivory Coast, a presenter on the channel called him a « putschist. » France 24 quickly corrected the error and added an online clarification saying he had been wrongly labelled a coup leader, while recalling his 2021 seizure of power and his election in 2025. The channel’s director has also reportedly apologised to the Guinean president, according to a Beninese outlet whose full report I could not access, so it is unclear whether the decision has since been softened.
The sanction goes beyond the airwaves. The HAC withdrew the accreditations of all correspondents, special correspondents and contributors of the French state-owned channel in Guinea, as well as that of Jeune Afrique’s correspondent, Diawo Barry. The Committee to Protect Journalists demanded that the decisions be reversed immediately, denouncing a « ruthless determination to silence independent voices. »
The organisation notes that since the military took power, the regulator has repeatedly banned critical outlets, and that the fate of journalist Habib Marouane Camara, seized by uniformed men in 2024, and of the father of exiled journalist Mamoudou Babila Keita, kidnapped in 2025, remains unknown. The episode follows similar moves elsewhere in the region, where France 24 has previously been cut off in Burkina Faso and, for a time, in Togo.