This work deals with the history of press in Guinea between the 1920s and 2010, that is to say between the 1st publication of a periodical in colonial days and the end of the 2nd Republic, that witnessed press liberalization. Like many Africa n countries, Guineans had their first contacts with newspapers during colonial rule. At first, press was controlled by colonial authorities before being adopted by the elite as a weapon in their anti-colonial fight. The Catholic missionaries-with La Voix de Notre-Dame- were press pioneers, along with some newspapers owned and published by colonists. The end of WW II witnessed the birth of a plurality of African papers such as Coup de Bambou, Phare de Guinée, La Liberté... The political and union leaders used press as a tool to contradict the authorities and also as a strong means to mobilize people and voters. This relative freedom of speech ended with the independence in 1958. The new unique party regime renamed La Liberté, the organ of the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain: it became Horoya, the one and only political periodical allowed to be published from 1958. This state monopoly provoked dramatic disaffection from the readership. After the 1984 coup, the country witnessed a graduai process of change in the context of multiparty. Considered as a 'Spring of the press', the 1990 decade recorded the publication of hundreds of ephemeral papers. Our work deals with this process and focuses on several case-studies, especially on two apparently strong press enterprises: Le Lynx- La Lance and L'Indépendant-Le Démocrate. It also tries to give a balanced appraisal of the situation of the press in 2010.
