In Guinea, internet access restrictions that had been imposed for three months were lifted overnight from Thursday to Friday.
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These restrictions were imposed due to a security “problem”, according to the Guinean authorities. They were lifted in a climate of growing social tension and after Monday’s announcement of the dissolution of the government by the military junta in power for two and a half years, which did not give the reasons. This is the problem for Abdoulaye Oumou Sow, communications manager of “ Let’s turn the page Guinea », joined by Paulina Zidi from the Africa editorial team.
He admits to having been surprised by the recovery, which was not officially announced by the authorities, and still questions this measure applied without any explanation and without any justification, according to him. “ The government secretly cut off the internet and also brought the internet back on the sly, without communicating why and how all this happened. This confirms the desire of those in power to want to muzzle people, especially since it has created a lot of inconveniences in the socio-economic life of the country – in particular, the digital economy has been stopped, students who were taking courses remotely could not follow the courses and young people who have start-ups could not make these start-ups work, press companies closed, some media companies also closed.
There was a lot of harm that was caused by this illegal and illegitimate decision, but also a decision that has not been justified until now. We know that social discontent is growing and the Guinean trade union movement has called for a Unlimited general strike starting next Monday. And among its demands, the restoration of the internet. Is it because social discontent is growing that we are freeing up the internet a little to ease tensions a little? We don’t know, especially since there was no explanation. »
Furthermore, the head of a press union detained for calling for demonstrations against the censorship of certain media and the Internet was sentenced this Friday to six months in prison, three of which were suspended, said his lawyer, Maître Salifou Béavogui. . Sékou Jamal Pendessa, secretary general of the Union of Press Professionals of Guinea (SPPG), was placed in detention a month ago.
Read alsoGuinea: journalist Sékou Jamal Pendessa sentenced to six months in prison including three prison terms