Guinea’s media regulator, the High Authority for Communication (HAC), suspended the pan-African television channel Africa 24 on December 21, 2025, accusing it of covering the presidential election campaign without accreditation. The suspension, which ordered the channel’s removal from the Canal+ package nationwide, came just six days before the December 28 vote, an election widely expected to cement military leader General Mamadi Doumbouya’s grip on power following the September 2021 coup.
The HAC said it took the decision at an extraordinary plenary session held by videoconference. It cited “the illegal practice of journalism” by Africa 24’s reporting teams and referenced its monitoring service’s reports showing the channel had broadcast content produced on Guinean territory about the election campaign. The regulator invoked Articles 1 and 18 of Organic Law L/2020/0010/AN of July 2020, governing the HAC’s powers, and Article 72 of the Electoral Code to justify the measure.
The HAC further stated that Africa 24’s accreditation application was “under review” but had been “delayed due to the lack of documents required by law.” Africa 24 disputed this, saying neither the channel, its affiliated Afrimedia News Agency (ANA), nor the freelance journalist who submitted the accreditation request on December 19 had received any notification requesting additional documents.
In a statement published on December 23, Africa 24 firmly rejected the allegations, calling them “false and abusive.” The channel said it had not deployed any staff or resources on Guinean territory to cover the campaign, noting that the HAC had set December 18 as the start of the mandatory accreditation period. Africa 24 stated that since December 14, no member of ANA or the Africa 24 Group had been present in Guinea or covered any events on the ground.
The channel explained that the election-related footage broadcast on its network came “almost exclusively from the video services of each presidential candidate transmitted digitally, the group’s production archives and illustrative images.” It noted that this could be independently verified and maintained that it had never had any infrastructure, legal entity, or staff on Guinean soil.
Africa 24 said it had submitted the HAC’s decision to legal authorities for analysis and concluded that the suspension lacked a valid legal basis. The channel described the action as “opportunistic,” arguing it masked internal issues within Guinea’s local media regulation of which the network was a “collateral victim.”
The suspension marked the first time an international media outlet had been taken off air by Guinea’s authorities during the election period, though several domestic outlets had already faced sanctions.
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) condemns the suspension of Africa 24 by the HAC. The regulator’s failure to afford the channel an opportunity to respond to the allegations before imposing sanctions raises serious due process concerns.
Suspending a media outlet without prior hearing or adequate notice, particularly during an election period, undermines the principles of proportionality and procedural fairness that should govern media regulation in any democracy.
The MFWA calls on the HAC to immediately lift the suspension and allow Africa 24 to resume broadcasting. Regulatory sanctions against media outlets must be grounded in transparent, evidence-based processes and should not serve to restrict the free flow of information to citizens at the very moment when access to diverse and independent reporting matters most.
