Guinea’s media regulator on Thursday banned French broadcaster France 24 from operating in the country, citing on-air comments it said disparaged President Mamady Doumbouya.
The High Authority for Communication (HAC) said the ban followed remarks by the channel “deemed to undermine the dignity of the head of state.” A day earlier, the HAC had issued France 24 a formal warning over what it called an “inappropriate term” used to describe Doumbouya.
The dispute traces back to a September 14 broadcast, during which a France 24 presenter referred to Doumbouya as a “putschist president.” France 24 told AFP on Wednesday that it planned to apologise and correct the error. A note has since been appended beneath the video, stating that Doumbouya was “mistakenly labelled a putschist president.”
The HAC also withdrew press accreditation from the Guinea correspondent of French-language magazine Jeune Afrique on Wednesday, accusing the journalist of “professional misconduct” without elaborating.
Doumbouya seized power in a 2021 coup and was elected president in December 2025, in a vote that featured no meaningful opposition. Since then, his government has dissolved political parties, banned protests, and moved against dissent — with critics arrested, convicted, forced into exile, or reported missing. Internet and social media access has also been restricted on multiple occasions.
France 24 has faced similar bans in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger — military-run Sahel states that have severed ties with France and aligned with Russia. The channel remains suspended in Togo as well, more than a year after a three-month ban that was never lifted.
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