On 4 February 2025, the Syndicat des Professionnels de la Presse de Guinée (SPPG) published its annual report on freedom of expression in the Republic of Guinea.
The third in a row, the annual report on freedom of expression in Guinea produced by the Syndicat des Professionnels de la Presse de Guinée (SPPG) is titled 2024: A Dark Year. The report establishes the worst record Guinea has had since the junta led by Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya seized power.
The report highlights four major issues. These are physical attacks, threats and attempted kidnappings, and law suits. For the year 2024, the SPPG report recorded 70 violations, 47 more incidents than the previous year. These included 32 journalists who were kidnapped, 16 of whom were arbitrarily arrested. Out of the 16 journalists arrested, 2 were jailed. In addition, 1 journalist was kidnapped.
These figures confirm a worrying regression in terms of freedom of expression in Guinea and serve as a wake-up call. The report is more alarming than previous ones and bears witness to the about-turn of Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya, who announced at the start of his term of office that he wanted to ‘consecrate press freedom’ in Guinea at a press launch at the Palais Mohamed V on 7 January 2021.
‘It is high time that the leaders understood that in a democracy, the media are the element that sheds light and issues alerts so that the country remains on the right track’, declared Sékou Jamal Pendessa, Secretary General of the Guinean Union of Press Professionals (SPPG), in a telephone interview with the MFWA.