CONAKRY, Sept. 1 — The 12th General Assembly of the Platform of Audiovisual Regulators of the Member States of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and Guinea opened Monday in Conakry, bringing together several presidents and senior officials of institutions responsible for regulating the media, information and communication sectors in the community space.
Scheduled from Monday to Wednesday, the meeting focuses on challenges related to the regulation of social media, cybersecurity, disinformation and hate speech, as well as mechanisms to harmonize regulatory practices across the WAEMU space and Guinea. The meeting is held under the theme: “Regulating social media in the face of cybersecurity challenges and the preservation of social cohesion: What harmonized mechanisms for WAEMU and Guinea?” In his opening address, Boubacar Yacine Diallo, president of Guinea’s High Authority for Communication, stressed the importance of a coordinated approach in addressing the growing role of digital platforms in information dissemination. According to Diallo, social media have become indispensable, but their illicit use can facilitate the spread of false information, hate speech and content likely to disturb public order. “We must therefore harmonize our positions to combat hate speech, combat disinformation and promote those who seek to make good use of these platforms,” he said.
Diallo said the challenge now was to strengthen cooperation among the various regulators in order to better oversee the use of social media while safeguarding fundamental freedoms, particularly freedom of expression. On Tuesday, Guinea officially assumed the presidency of the Platform of Audiovisual Regulators of WAEMU and Guinea during the general assembly. The assumption of the presidency is expected to help strengthen subregional cooperation in media and information regulation, as countries in the region face common challenges arising from the digital transformation of the media landscape. For his part, Guinean Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Keeper of the Seals Ibrahima Sory II Tounkara stressed the need to strike a balance between content regulation and the protection of freedom of expression. “Our responsibility is to find the right balance: to protect without suffocating, to regulate without censoring, and to sanction abuses without weakening freedom of expression,” he said. According to him, freedom of expression remains fundamental, but it cannot justify calls for violence, organized manipulation of public opinion or violations of human dignity. At the conclusion of the meeting, regulators from the WAEMU space and Guinea are expected to identify common approaches to harmonize regulatory practices concerning the media and social media across the West African subregion.
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