In a statement released this Sunday, February 12, 2023, the Syndicate of Guinean Press Professionals (SPPG) blasted Minister Charles Wright’s injunction to initiate legal proceedings against journalist Mohamed Mara and the CEO of the press group. HADAFO media.
After a meeting organized for this purpose, the union says it has established that a minister has neither the right nor the power to sue the prosecutor when he considers himself to be subject to acts of insult or defamation. The trade union movement relies on article 128 paragraph 4 of the L02 on the freedom of the press in the Republic of Guinea. Article 123 also indicates the order in which proceedings are instituted in the event of press offences. It is first of all the director of publication, the directors of radio or television, the editors of the sites and/or the co-directors. Express perpetrators are prosecuted only as a last resort.
The SPPG also believes that Lamine GUIRASSY, CEO of the press group to which the journalist belongs, cannot be prosecuted in this case. It should be emphasized that in terms of press offences, it is the director of the radio or television station and not the CEO who can be prosecuted.
The SSPG recalls that the minister “referred awkwardly to the provisions of the penal code”, instead of law L02.
Thus, the executive office of the union of press professionals of Guinea has taken the following decisions:
1- The union asks comrade Mohamed MARA not to respond to a summons sent to him on the basis of these injunctions which are both illegal and provocative;
2- In case the prosecutor of the court of Mafanco decides to carry out these shameful instructions, to call all media professionals to a white march which will go from the place of the martyrs to the roundabout of the autonomous port of Conakry to end in the front of the Ministry of Justice where we will protest against the liberticidal actions of Charles Wright whose career is unfortunately darkened by his many illegal decisions against the freedom of the press;
3- In the event that comrade Mohamed MARA lodged a complaint against Minister Charles for abuse of power, to constitute a civil party behind his legal action.
Finally, the union notes that, in the name of transparency and the principle of accountability, it would be simpler and less costly for the Keeper of the Seals to justify the amounts used for his recent tour inside the country than to waste illegally and useless energy by using state resources to desperately pursue a journalist.