SECTOR 1 1.11 Civil society in general and media lobby groups actively advance the cause of media freedom. Civil society strongly believes in and defends media freedom. The Conakry Bar Association, for example, has always courageously defended media freedom, and so has the National Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (Coalition Nationale des Organisations Société Civile, CNOSC). For its part, the CNOSC has a direct stake in the matter given that all civil society organisations represented in the coalition have an interest in defending media freedom - and thus their own freedom to be heard - irrespective of their area of work. Media associations, on the other hand, are inactive, particularly when it comes to the defense of their members. In the case of l’Indépendant, where the military came to the newspaper’s offices to look for the author of an incriminating article about them, there was no reaction from any of the media associations (AGUIPEL5 AGEPI6, AJG7). Instead it was civil society that stepped into the breach. When three RTG (Radio Télévision Guinéenne, the state/public broadcaster) journalists, including its director, were suspended from presenting television news without prior written notice, again only civil society spoke out. The journalists associations preferred to remain silent - for reasons, some panelists believed, linked to internal rivalries. Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 4.1 (2008 = n/a ; 2006 = n/a) 5 Association of Guinean Online Press (Association Guinéenne de la Presse en Ligne) 6 Association of Guinean Independent Publishers (Association Guinéenne des Editeurs de la Presse Indépendante) 7 Association of Guinean Journalists (Association des Journalistes de Guinée) AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER GUINEA 2011 85