Safeguards needed for journalism in Guinea-Bissau after military coup

The new social communication minister, Abduramane Ture, met with the country's main media directors two weeks after the coup to present them with the transitional charterand a statement saying: "The Military High Command calls on all media outlets to cooperate in order to avoid disseminating information and messages inciting violence and civil disobedience, on pain of immediate closure."

Media executives have said they see this as a call for "self-censorship" and fear the kind of news control that has imposed "patriotic" news coveragestifling all independent and critical reporting in nearby countries such as Mali and Burkina Faso.

The new military junta sent a disturbing signal by suspending all privately-owned media outlets including Sol Mansiand Capital FMfor three days after the coup. Journalists are also concerned about the fact that the new social communication minister was the director of Africa FM, a radio station owned by newly ousted President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, whose communications he managed during the campaign for an election in November.

Journalists' Union president Indira Correia Baldé says the freedom to report the news is at stake. Privately-owned media outlets have pointed out that "only public media and one international media outlet" were, in practice, allowed to cover the inauguration of the transitional president and his government.

In an environment already marked by significant economic fragility for media outlets, repeated violence against journalists, and a heightened danger of news control, RSF has identified two urgent measures that would help to safeguard journalistic freedom during the transition period:

• Promote media economic sustainability

With no public subsidies, scarce advertising and exorbitantly expensive operating licences - ranging from 800 to nearly 8,000 EUR a year - it is hard for media outlets to cover the entire country, and a media professional's average salary rarely exceeds 150 EUR a month.

"You can't guarantee press freedom and access to information without media sustainability," a Bissau-based reporter said, pointing out that it is difficult for him and his colleagues to cover the country's eight regions, 36 departments, and islands. "To go there, you have to be invited by NGOs," he added.

These economic difficulties were exacerbated by the closure of privately-owned media outlets for three days, which made it impossible for them to honour existing advertising contracts. This has "unfortunately resulted in losses in advertising revenue that no one will compensate," said Satam Injai, director of Radio Pindjiguiti, the country's leading radio station, established in 1995. Her opinion is shared by Antonio Nhaga, a journalist with the weekly newspaper O Democrata, who says the three-day closure made things worse for the media.

Recommendation: RSF emphasises the need - during the transition - to implement mechanisms that help media outlets become more professional and to introduce public subsidies for the media that are allocated transparently.

• Combat impunity for crimes against journalists and media

Acting on orders from the new military junta, soldiers from the presidential guard stormed Radio Sol Mansion 26 November, the day of the coup, and expelled its staff. Tiago Seide, executive director of Rádio Capital FM, the country's most popular radio station, recalls the "old and painful memory" of the double armed attackon his station on 7 February 2022 "by people in uniform, who have still not been identified or brought to justice."

Waldir Araujo, a journalist who is Portuguese public broadcaster RTP's correspondent in Guinea-Bissau, was physically attackedby a group of individuals in the capital on 27 July.

Recommendation: RSF reiterates the importance of ensuring that all physical attacks against journalists or news media are systematically the subject of impartial and effective investigations with the aim of punishing the perpetrators. RSF emphasises the need, during the transition period, to establish security protocols that enable media professionals and media outlets to report the news without being subjected to reprisals.

Guinea-Bissau is ranked 110th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2025 World Press Freedom Index, 18 positions lower than in 2024.