To date, four candidates have been officially designated to compete in the supreme election. However, the opening election campaign arouses concerns about its sincerity. Latent disinformation could influence the final result.

On the evening of April 12 , Gabon will have a new head of state. He was democratically elected among the four candidates who were officially retained on March 9 by the Minister of the Interior and Security, Hermann Immongault, also president of the National Commission for the Organization and Coordination of the Elections and the Referendum (CNOCER). Among the personalities in line are Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, current president of the transition and fall of ex-president Ali Bongo; Alain-Claude Bilie-by-Nze, former Prime Minister of Ali Bongo; Stéphane Germain Illoko, doctor and former executive of the Gabonese Democratic Party (CEO) and Joseph the Essingone, lawyer and tax inspector.

Freedom of the press in Gabon: an unfinished site

In this key stage for the future of the country, voices are already rising to anticipate and denounce possible drifts. Thus, the designation of the four candidates arouse reactions from certain commentators who denounce the lack of transparency of the Minister of the Interior who did not specify the reasons for rejection of the 19 other candidates. This lack of clarity feeds the suspicion of manipulation, promotes rumors and opens the door to disinformation.

This situation is all the more worrying since the promises of the transitional government do not seem to have been all held. Indeed, during his first meeting with the press on September 3, 2023, after the coup against Ali Bongo, General Nguema said he was "ready to facilitate the work of journalists", sometimes difficult under the fallen government. The emergence of a free and independent press remains an unfinished project in Gabon, in particular due to the sometimes deemed excessive sanctions of the High Communication Authority (HAC)*, the media regulatory body, underlines a study by the journalist and communicator of Gabonese, Tchibinda stock market.

Entitled "Transition to Gabon, between informational disorder and fake news", it establishes an inventory of halftone of press freedom in the country, even if Gabon went up in 2024 to 56th place (out of 180) of the classification of reporters without borders. He occupied 94th place in 2023 and was in sixth position of African countries behind Mauritania, Namibia, South Africa, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Gabon does not have to be ashamed of its journalistic pluralism with 80 periodicals in the written press, around twenty television channels, an important radio coverage and a considerable boom in its digital press.

Fake News shock wave

Through his study, Tchibinda scholarship holder wants to raise awareness about "the informational disorder" that constitute in particular the disinformation (manipulation), mesinformation (false information) and the ill-information (truncated information on real or likely bases). Engaging in a finer analysis through a survey carried out with 500 individuals, he spotted that more than a third of the Gabonese population was exposed "daily" to fake news, especially through word of mouth (57 %) which then extends to social networks (Facebook-88.7 %and Whatsapp-76.5 %). The most exposed and most recurrent subjects in Fake News concern above all recruitment announcements and policy, which alone concentrate 69 % of cases.

In terms of disinformation and false news, Gabon has a level of exposure comparable to that of many other countries. Everyone keeps in memory the recent false information having circulated here and there. Among them, the episode of René Ndemezo'o Obiang in May 2023, then Minister of State in charge of consumption and the fight against expensive life. The latter had been the direct target of a false news announcing his death, causing a real shock wave on Gabonese social networks. He had returned a few days later to Libreville from his stay in Morocco. He had been welcomed by members of his office, his security service and his family, at Léon-Mbi international airport.

In July 2024, it was the fourth vice-president of the National Assembly, Geoffroy Foumboula Libeka who had to deny a fake news which announced that "the organization and the counting of all the elections would be made by the Ministry of the Interior", the ballot boxes "before traveling to the headquarters of the ministry where harmonization will be without view of the populations"! These are only two emblematic examples among others.

Limit information disorder

These are the excesses that Stive Romeo Makan, the editor -in -chief of Kongossanews.com, also denounced by Boursier Tchibinda. He warns "against the many activists who, mostly residing in Gabon for the most part, deliver fairly dangerous information and often likely to discredit the authorities of the transition and therefore of the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions (CRTI)". This is why, Tchibinda scholarship holder issues seven recommendations in his report, which range from the harmonization of the communication code to the establishment of a national media observatory (detail in the box below), in order to limit the country's "informational disorder" and to deliver true, precise and quality information. However, by the result of the elections on April 12, an increase in false information, rumors, communications that are both targeted and truncated, of any origin whatsoever, is to be feared.

(*) Because it is deemed as cruelly lacking in independence, the commentators gave it the nickname of “ax”