Journalists in Gabon are calling for the dismissal of the president of the media regulator, the High Authority for Communication Raphaël Ntoutoume Nkoghé, for becoming a “media executioner”.

In a press conference in the capital Libreville on Tuesday, the Gabonese Employers’ Media Organisation said the suspensions of the tri-weekly newspaper L’aube, the weekly Echos du Nord, the Gabonreview media outlet and that of RFI correspondent Yves-Laurent Goma for a period of 2 months, constitutes excessive sanctions.

Imposing his dictatorship to make the free and unaligned press disappear from the country’s media space is in violation of the fundamental principles and rules of the Communication Code.