Dakar, September 18, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Guinean authorities to reverse Thursday’s
ban
on France 24 after a presenter called President Mamadi Doumbouya a “putschist president“ and to reinstate the accreditation of the pan-African weekly Jeune Afrique’s Guinea correspondent Diawo Barry.
“By prohibiting France 24 from broadcasting and Jeune Afrique’s Diawo Barry from working, Guinean authorities have shown their ruthless determination to silence independent voices and to intimidate other media outlets into self-censorship,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “Authorities must immediately reverse these decisions and refrain from further actions that erode press freedom and the public’s right to information.”
In its September 17
decision
, the regulatory High Authority of Communication (HAC) said it had banned France 24 because it had failed to comply with its
order
the previous day “to immediately cease using terms deemed derogatory to the dignity of the Head of State and to make the required editorial corrections.” The HAC also withdrew press accreditation for all the French state-owned channel’s correspondents, special correspondents, and contributors in Guinea.
On Monday, a France 24 presenter
used
the word “
putschist
” while commenting on Doumbouya’s
visit
to Ivory Coast.
Hours after the HAC’s September 16 notice, France 24 added an online
correction
to the video’s description, saying that Doumbouya had been “mistakenly labeled a coup leader.”
“Having seized power in a coup on September 5, 2021, which overthrew President Alpha Condé, he was subsequently elected President of the Republic following the presidential election of December 28, 2025,” the correction said.
France 24
told
Agence France-Presse news agency that it had also apologized and corrected the error on air.
Also on September 16, the HAC
revoked
Barry’s accreditation as Jeune Afrique’s correspondent on the grounds tha
