Guinea’s High Authority for Communication (HAC) issued two decisions, N°019/HAC/2026 of 30 April and N°020/HAC/P/2026 of 2 May, lifting the suspensions imposed on three television stations and three journalists, following administrative appeals (recours gracieux) ruled on at the regulator’s ordinary plenary of 28 April.
The HAC said it had also taken into account letters of apology and formal commitments from the outlets and journalists concerned to strictly comply with the laws governing the press in Guinea.
In the first decision signed on April 30 by the president of the HAC, the institution lifted the suspension of KABACK TV, AFRICA 24 and Télé 24’s TV show “Guinee Today”. The same decision announced the lifting of the suspensions of journalists André Gaston Morel, Aboubacar Diallo and Sékou Bah.
André Gaston Morel had been suspended on April 18, while Aboubacar Diallo and Sékou Bah, along with the broadcast of their program “Guinea Today,” were suspended on April 23. All three journalists had been suspended for engaging in candidate propaganda prior to the official launch of the campaign, as prohibited by the electoral code.
KABACK TV had previously been taken off air by the regulator on grounds of indecency and breach of public morals.
Africa 24 was banned from airing nationwide following an extraordinary HAC plenary on 21 December 2025, six days before the 28 December presidential election, for allegedly covering the campaign without HAC accreditation. The channel disputed the allegations, saying it had deployed no reporting teams inside Guinea during the accreditation window.
The second decision, signed on May 2, 2026, restores EVASION TV to the Canal+ package, lifting a suspension imposed on 9 December 2023, when the regulator ordered Canal+ to drop both Evasion TV and Espace TV from its bouquet on national-security grounds.
The HAC justified the reinstatement by pointing to internal administrative measures taken by the Évasion group to strengthen ethical and professional standards, but warned that the group must maintain those measures to avoid any recurrence “likely to compromise social cohesion.”
The HAC said the lifting was guided by a desire to foster a climate of calm and media pluralism, citing the symbolic significance of International Workers’ Day on 1 May and World Press Freedom Day on 3 May.
The Media Foundation for West Africa welcomes the lifting of the suspensions imposed on the media outlets Télé 24, KABACK TV, and AFRICA 24, as well as on the three journalists André Gaston Morel, Aboubacar Diallo and Sékou Bah, and the reinstatement of EVASION TV on the Canal+ package.
The MFWA encourages the High Authority for Communication to continue this momentum toward reconciliation and calls on the Guinean authorities to ensure, on a lasting basis, a free, pluralistic, and secure media environment in which journalists can carry out their work without fear of arbitrary suspension or reprisals.
