Guinea bans journalist Mamoudou Babila Keita and the Inquisiteur website for six months

Guinean journalist Mamoudou Babila Keita was banned from practicing journalism for six months after publishing an investigation into corruption. (Screenshot: Espace TV Guinea/YouTube)

DAKAR, May 8, 2023 – Guinea’s media regulator should lift the suspension of Inquisiteur media channel and journalist Mamoudou Babila Keita and allow the press to report on matters of public interest without fear of sanctions, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Wednesday .

On April 17, the High Authority for Communications (HAC) blocked the private news website Inquisiteur in Guinea and banned Keita from practicing journalism for six months, according to news reports and Keita, who is also the site’s administrator.

The suspension followed a complaint filed on March 27 by Alphonse Charles Wright, the former Minister of Justice and Human Rights, regarding a March 20 investigation by the Inquisiter into allegations of corruption in public contracts, according to the HAC decision reviewed by CPJ.

Keita told CPJ that he was summoned to court in the capital Conakry on May 30 on defamation charges following a complaint from Wright.

“Guinea’s communications regulator should reverse the suspension of Mamoudou Babila Keita and the news website Inquisiteur and ensure that the media can operate unhindered,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, in New York. “The six-month suspension risks seriously jeopardizing Inquisiteur’s financial standing and denies the Guinean public access to various sources of information.”

In its decision, the HAC stated that Keita “failed to provide any evidence to support his allegations” and that he “cannot practice the profession of journalist” for the duration of his suspension.

Keita shared with CPJ an 11-page memo he wrote to the HAC on April 16 in response to their request for evidence to support the corruption allegations in his article. In the memo, Keita asked HAC to verify the evidence listed in his report with authorities to prove his innocence.

Wright told CPJ that the article had damaged his career and hurt his family, and he waited a week before filing the complaint, hoping that Keita would call him and ask for comment on the story.

Keita told CPJ that the HAC’s suspension would represent “a huge loss” for Inquisiteur, one of Guinea’s 10 most popular news websites, which had just invested in new headquarters and equipment and planned to hire new staff.

“All of that will be lost now,” Keita told CPJ.

Separately, on March 25, the HAC suspended Habib Marouane Camara, a columnist for the private Djoma Media group, for three months for alleged “defamatory statements” after transport minister and government spokesman Ousmane Gaoual Diallo filed a complaint, the columnist told CPJ .

On January 17, the HAC blocked the private news website Dépêche Guinée for nine months and banned its editor Abdoul Latif Diallo from “founding or lending out his services to any news organization” for six months.

According to the law establishing the HAC “in defense of citizens’ right to information,” the regulator can sanction, suspend or ban media outlets and journalists who fail to comply with the provisions of the Communications Law.

Since late 2023, several news websites, including Inquisiteur, have been inaccessible for months, and at least four radio and television stations and social media platforms have been blocked in Guinea. The restrictions began in May and coincided with opposition protests against the military government that took power in 2021.

CPJ’s calls to HAC President Boubacar Yacine Diallo seeking comment were not returned.