Guinea’s media regulator, the High Authority for Communication (HAC), on March 25, 2026, ordered the permanent closure of private television station Kaback TV and all its digital platforms, citing a conflict of interest involving the station’s owner and the broadcast of content it deemed likely to disturb public order. The decision, No. 006/HAC/P/26, signed by HAC President Boubacar Yacine Diallo, took effect immediately.
The first ground for the shutdown relates to ownership. Mamadou Camara, the licence holder of Kaback TV, also serves as Guinea’s Inspector General of Police. The HAC ruled that this dual role violates the principles of neutrality, impartiality and the separation of public functions from private media activities, constituting a conflict of interest under Guinea’s audiovisual regulations.
The second ground concerns an interview with a school head in Conakry, conducted after a protest by parents of students. During the interview, the school head made allegations against a parent representative who is also a security officer described in Guinean media reports as being close to junta leader General Mamadi Doumbouya. Several media outlets reported that the individual in question was Commandant Kilo, a member of Doumbouya’s close security detail who has been cited in multiple allegations of abductions and intimidation.
Kaback TV’s editors told the MFWA in a phone conversation that they had decided not to broadcast the interview. However, the reporter who conducted it posted the footage on his personal social media page without authorisation, failing to obscure the station’s logo visible on the microphone. It was this unauthorised post that led the HAC to attribute the content to the station and invoke it as a second basis for the closure order.
The permanent shutdown is the second HAC sanction against Kaback TV in less than four months. On December 10, 2025, the regulator suspended the station for three months over the broadcast of content deemed indecent and defamatory during the programme “Telero.” That suspension was lifted just two days later, on December 12, 2025, after the station’s management apologised, took disciplinary action against the journalists involved, and media associations and public figures intervened on its behalf.
The closure comes at a sensitive moment for media freedom in Guinea. Since the military junta led by General Doumbouya seized power in September 2021, the country has experienced escalating restrictions on independent media, including internet shutdowns, social media censorship, the jamming of radio signals and the suspension of news outlets.
The HAC itself has faced sustained criticism over its independence, particularly since a 2020 law gave the president the power to appoint its head, a function previously exercised by the regulator’s own commissioners.
The shutdown took place barely two months before Guinea’s legislative and municipal elections, scheduled for May 26, 2026, a period when diverse and independent media coverage is essential for informed public participation. In February 2026, the HAC announced it would publish an authorised list of journalists and media outlets permitted to cover the elections, a measure the MFWA urged should be applied in a lawful, transparent and non-discriminatory manner.
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) urges the HAC to reconsider the closure and adopt a proportionate response. The conflict of interest can be addressed through targeted compliance measures.
Permanently silencing a media outlet over these grounds, particularly weeks before an election, sets a troubling precedent for press freedom in Guinea. The MFWA calls on the HAC to prioritise dialogue and corrective action over outright shutdown, consistent with its obligations under Guinea’s constitution and international standards on freedom of expression.
