Many media outlets were created when the multiparty system was restored in 1990. There are now more than 60 print media outlets, of which L'Union, the only national daily, is the most prominent. Échos du Nord, La Loupe, L'Aube and Le Temps are the most widely read, privately owned weeklies. The online press is growing, and the most visited sites are Gabonreview, Gabon Media Time and Gabonactu. State TV channels such as Gabon Première and Gabon 24 are still very influential despite competition from several privately owned channels. The presidential election of August 2023, just before the coup d’état, was not covered by any foreign reporters because the government had denied all requests for accreditation. It also interrupted local retransmission of the French broadcast media France 24, RFI and TV5 Monde. 

The tradition of a free and independent press has yet to take hold in Gabon, including online.  Broadcasting is dominated by state media, independent journalists are excluded from official demonstrations, and recent years have seen an increase in arbitrary suspensions by the media regulator, the High Authority for Communication (HAC), which sorely lacks independence and is nicknamed the “hache” (axe). Even greater government control of the HAC was feared after a law promulgated in July 2023 restored the government’s former power to appoint all nine of its members, stripping journalists of their right to name two members, thus relegating them to the status of mere spectators. 

Freedom of expression is enshrined in Gabon’s constitution, and the 2016 communication law abolished prison sentences for press offences. The police nonetheless still summon journalists for questioning under the penal code. Article 55 of the organic law governing the HAC is misused and gives its president the possibility to sanction a media outlet without bringing together all nine HAC members. The amendment changing the method of appointing its members was adopted in a completely opaque manner. 

State aid to print media has been distributed more equitably since 2020, but journalists continue to face serious financial difficulties. The raw materials crisis in 2014 and the Covid-19 health crisis caused the bankruptcy of many media outlets. The advertising market has also shrunk, and advertisers are now abandoning the more critical publications, radio stations and TV channels. 

Gabonese journalists continue to be subjected to intimidation, especially by means of summonses by the security services, but arbitrary arrests are rare. For the most part, journalists have difficulty gaining access to sources.