SECTOR 2 2.2 Citizens’ access to domestic and international media sources is not restricted by state authorities. There are no legal or regulatory restrictions on citizens’ access to domestic or international media. 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: 4.9 (2008 = n/a ; 2006 = n/a) 2.3 Efforts are undertaken to increase the scope of circulation of the print media, particularly to rural communities. No real efforts are being made to increase the circulation of the print media, particularly to rural communities. Newspaper distribution is still a serious problem even in urban centres. The Guinean Newspaper Distribution Company (Société Guinéenne de Distribution de Presse, SOGUIDIP) operates only in the capital Conakry because of difficulties of recovering sales. Distribution is a crucial problem: the paper Lynx, for example, takes 48 hours to reach Nzerekore (located 1000 km from Conakry). In addition, transportation costs are exorbitant and prohibitive. Some publishers have been looking for alternative means of distribution by using pharmacies as sales points, but without success. Neighbourhood stores, which had previously been used as newspaper kiosks, have also become too wary of distributing newspapers that were very critical of the ruling regime. On the whole, despite the creation of the Association of Independent Media Publishers (Association des Éditeurs de la Presse Indépendante, AGEPI), publishers have still not succeeded in meeting the major challenge of distributing newspapers throughout the country in a timely manner. The state does not offer any assistance in this regard and so the interior of the country remains very poorly served. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER GUINEA 2011 89