Saidou Barry, a reporter of the afriquezoom.com news website, is being an accessory to contempt of the Guinean President Alpha Condé.
The MFWA’s correspondent in the country reported that Barry is being tried for interviewing and publishing an interview granted him by Elie Kamano, a musician.
Amadou Tham, the President of the Guinean On-line Press Association commenting on the issue said “press freedom is in danger in Guinea. If we start to prosecute a journalist simply because he held out a microphone to an artiste who is being prosecuted but has not been imprisoned, that becomes worrying”.
The state prosecutor at the court in the commune of Dixinn in the Guinean Capital has also lodged a complaint against Elle Kamono, for insulting Guinean president Alpha Condé.
His lawyers are protesting that their client is “being sued for insulting the head of state, but at no time has the prosecutor disclosed the incriminating statement in which the singer slandered the head of state.”
These accusations are considered as flagrant violations by the authorities of chapter 2 of the Guinean constitution on “the freedoms, obligations and fundamental rights” which guarantees the freedoms of expression and of opinion in Guinea.