Regulator acts outside law by closing radio station for one month

Reporters Without Borders urges the National Communication Council (CNC), Guinea’s media regulator, to immediately rescind the outrageous order it issued on 30 May suspending Radio Planète FM and one of its programme hosts, Mandian Sidibé, for a month. “No current legislation allows the CNC to issue this order,” Reporters Without Borders said. “It is based on a 1991 press law that was rendered null and void by Organic Laws 002 and 003, which Gen. Sékouba Konaté promulgated on 22 June 2010, during the transition. In other words, the CNC has acted outside the law. “Furthermore, the CNC has given vague and general reasons, without specifying which comments by Sidibé and which broadcasts caused offence, and instead of just punishing him, it has suspended the entire radio station, putting all of its employees out of work for the duration of the sanction and depriving the Guinean public of a source of news and information.” Signed by CNC president Martine Condé, Decision No. 005/SP/05/2013 of 30 May condemned “grave breaches of ethics and conduct in the interactive programmes ‘Journalists on Patrol’ and ‘Palaver’ on Radio Planète FM by programme host Mandian Sidibé, who distinguished himself by violating ethics and conduct, inciting hatred and violence.” As well as ordering the station’s closure for a month, the CNC decision “formally forbids Mandian Sidibé to speak on the air on any state or privately-owned radio station in the Republic of Guinea during this period.” Reporters Without Borders offers its support to Guinea’s news media and its support for the initiatives taken by local organizations that defend media freedom. The Guinean Union of Free Radio and TV broadcasters (URTELGUI) announced that all privately-owned member radio and TV stations would simultaneously broadcast a special programme today and would suspend broadcasting throughout the country for a day on 6 June. A special spot on the threat to privately-owned radio and TV stations will also be broadcast. Reporters Without Borders previously criticized the CNC’s draconian measures in a July 2011 report entitled “Turning the page, hopes for media freedom in Niger and Guinea.”