Gabonese media minus TV+

In a worrying development for media freedom in the country, on January 26th the government suspended for three months broadcasting by TV+, a television channel owned by the leader of the now disbanded Union nationale opposition party, André Mba Obame. In a press statement the official communications watchdog, Conseil national de la communication (CNC), explained that the channel had been banned owing to its broadcast of the supposed swearing-in ceremony of the Union nationale leader as president, which the CNC judged be a threat to public order.

Relative both to the rule of the previous president, Omar Bongo Ondimba, and to elsewhere in central Africa, press freedom has been fairly well respected since the incumbent, Ali Bongo Ondimba, came to office. However, the recent suspension of TV+ is not the first clampdown on the media since then. Soon after Mr Bongo's election in late 2009 the communications watchdog suspended another privately owned television channel, Canal Espoir, and several local newspapers for allegedly misinforming the public, fomenting inter-ethnic tensions and propagating insults and slander (December 2009, The political scene). Even after the febrile post-election atmosphere had dissipated, in May 2010 the CNC suspended publication of a satirical newspaper, Ezombolo, for its "repeated outrages" against the president's honour. Local campaigners for press freedom, as well as an international lobby, Reporters sans frontières, have strongly condemned such curbs on free speech by the authorities.

Nonetheless, the various temporary bans handed down by the CNC have not yet cowed the local media. Editorials and news reports that are critical of the government, or embarrassing to it, continue to be published. Moreover, as Internet connections are quick and ubiquitous in Gabon, at least in the main cities, ordinary Gabonese have access to entirely uncensored and often vitriolic political commentary. The suspension of TV+ is arguably a heavy-handed reaction and could herald further curbs on free expression, but few governments in the world would tolerate a similarly seditious live broadcast. Moreover, it is unlikely to herald a return to the repression of the Omar Bongo era. His son and successor in the presidency knows that he can ill-afford to curtail freedom of expression. Domestically, his loosening of press control has allowed him to present himself as a reformer and has created a safety valve through which popular frustrations can be vented. Internationally, the president would jeopardise the support of his Western backers, in particular the French and US governments, if he gained a reputation as an enemy of free speech.