2012 Predators of Press Freedom: Equatorial Guinea - Teodoro Obiang Nguema, President

The years pass but nothing changes in the "Kuwait of Africa," the fiefdom of a leader described by the national radio station as the "God of Equatorial Guinea." President Teodoro Obiang Nguema was re-elected at the end of 2009 with 96.7 per cent of the votes in polling that many international media including the Spanish daily El País were prevented from covering. The president maintains absolute control over this small oil state in the Gulf of Guinea.

Equatorial Guinea's hosting of the 17th African Union summit in June 2011 and the Africa cup of Nations soccer tournament in January this year were window dressing by the government and did not open the door to progress on basic freedoms.

The privately-owned press is limited to a few small newspapers. The country has no journalists' union or press freedom organization. The stranglehold which the president and his family maintain over the economy is accompanied by an overwhelming personality cult.

The international media have just one correspondent in the capital, who is closely watched. The authorities nonetheless continue to insist that the lack of media pluralism is due to poverty and that the high percentages the president gets in every election are "the result of acceptance of his policies."

The national radio and TV broadcaster RTVGE obeys the orders of the information ministry. The state broadcaster has not been allowed to mention the unrest and revolutions that have shaken the Arab world since the start of 2011 and the coup in Mali in March this year has also been subjected to censorship.