Equatorial Guinea
International censorship on Equatorial Guinea?

afrol.com, 11 October - According to the Equatorial Guinea opposition, the government of the former colonial power, Spain, has decided to censor all information related to their country, and is planning to close the emissions of Radio Spain International to Equatorial Guinea. The Spanish Presidency denies this in an interview with afrol.com.

The situation described by the opposition supposedly arose after president Teodoro Obiang made the closure of the only broadcaster with an alternative view a term for the Spanish oil company REPSOL to obtain concessions in the country. Ramón Gil Casares, the responsible of foreign policy in the Spanish Presidency, in an interview with afrol.com strongly denies the claims of the Guinean opposition.

The exiled oppositional party UDI (Unión Democrática Independiente de Guinea Ecuatorial) told afrol.com that president Obiang demanded the closure of the program directed at Equatorial Guinea by Radio Spain International when the Spanish Director of the Department of International and Defence Affairs in the Spanish Presidency, Ramón Gil Casares last visited Malabo. This was the condition for a possible concession to the Spanish oil company REPSOL and for a normalisation of the relations between the two countries. 

Equatorial Guinea is turning into one of Africa's principal oil producers, but so far, American companies have been dominating the extraction and commercialisation of oil in the country, while Spanish interests stay within the traditional sectors of cocoa and timber.

According to the opposition, the possible closure of the emissions "is particularly grave considering that Radio Spain International is the only broadcaster in Spanish which covers the entire national territory of Equatorial Guinea. Its programs are followed by the entire population, have a wide and social content, far from the political propaganda from Radio Malabo, and is arousing the rage of the dictatorial government." 

In an interview with afrol.com, Gil Casares categorically denied these charges. According to Gil, the Spanish government has not intervened, nor does it have any intention to close the Guinean service of the state-owned Radio Spain International. He could, however, confirm the repeated complaints of Equatorial Guinean government officials concerning the broadcaster.

On the other hand, since September this year, one has observed that the emissions from Spain have stopped including the press releases from the opposition, and that the usual interviews with opposition leaders have come to an end. Sources in the opposition have informed afrol.com that they see this connected to the possible entry of REPSOL into the country. Regarding this, Gil claims that the emissions of Radio Spain International to Equatorial Guinea have been directed by the same person for almost a decade, and that there can be no talk of government interventions into the editorial profile. He further hints that the probably wrongful story about the detention of the Guinean Minister of Justice, emitted on the broadcaster in September based on a release from the opposition, was the last straw to the editor. 

To the question, whether the Spanish government is facilitating the entry of the oil company REPSOL into the Guinean market, Gil Casares underlines the point that "REPSOL is a private company and the issue has not been treated at any moment during my visit to Equatorial Guinea." However, the Spanish government, like all other governments, usually facilitates possible foreign business contacts for public and private companies based in its country.

The opposition accuses the Spanish authorities to have "ordered the reimposing of the censorship of Reserved Guinean Material in any way related to the dictatorship of Equatorial Guinea and related to the dictatorial policy of Teodoro Obiang and his family and the permanent violations of fundamental rights."

The representative of the Spanish Presidency defends himself by saying that nothing could hinder the freedom of the press in Spain. He claims that Spain informs about its relations with Equatorial Guinea in the same ways as with any other country. Asked about the visit by President Aznar to Equatorial Guinea, on which afrol.com reported 28 September, Mr. Gil claimed this was the first he had ever heard about the matter. There was no visit to Equatorial Guinea on the agenda of President Aznar, nor were there intentions of going. At this very moment, there is a Spanish delegation in Equatorial Guinea, which the Spanish opposition claims is preparing Aznar's possible visit.

Material about Equatorial Guinea, however, remains difficult to obtain in Spain. From the Public Archives, material containing information about the relationship between Spain and Equatorial Guinea  and about the situation in Guinea after its independence in 1968 mostly is reserved and thus impossible to access, even to scientists. As the Government of Equatorial Guinea neither contributes with reliable information about the country, the only sources to the situation in the country remains the exiled opposition and sometimes the information smuggled out by the opposition in the country, along with critical remarks by the Spanish opposition. Since 1968, this has been the overall picture regarding information about Equatorial Guinea.

Sources: La Diáspora, UDI, Spanish Presidency 

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