On July 14, the director of Radio Baoulé, Seydou Oumar Traoré, was sentenced to six months in prison and fined one million CFA francs ( $1,785.58 ), for the charge of offending a foreign head of state.
Seydou Traoré was arrested on May 26, 2025 following a widespread circulation of a video on social media, in which he accused General Doumbouya of Guinea of “betraying the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) by collaborating with Western powers to host terrorist bases in Guinea.”
He was subsequently detained for “offending a foreign head of state” and placed under a warrant of deportation by the Cybercrime Unit.
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) finds the fine and sentencing of Seydou Traoré concerning especially as the journalist publicly apologised for the comments he made. We urge the authorities to review the sentence and release the journalist.
