Togo

The Togolese Republic is a West African state of around 9.5 million people, with its capital at Lomé and the West African CFA franc (XOF) as its currency, pegged to the euro through the UEMOA monetary union. GDP stood at roughly US$10.6 billion in 2024, growing at about 5.3 percent. The country has been governed by the Gnassingbé family since 1967, first by Gnassingbé Éyadéma, then by Faure Gnassingbé since 2005. The 2024-2025 period brought the most significant institutional change since the multi-party era began: the 2024 Constitution shifted Togo from a presidential to a parliamentary system, and on 3 May 2025 Faure Gnassingbé became President of the Council of Ministers, the new highest executive office, with full authority over civil and military appointments, while Jean-Lucien Savi de Tové, a long-time opposition figure and former Minister of Commerce, became ceremonial President of the Republic. Opposition forces described the reform as a “constitutional coup”. UNIR won 108 of 113 National Assembly seats in the April 2024 legislative elections, with 2025 senatorial elections further confirming ruling-party dominance.

SMM tracks five Togolese state-media outlets. TVT, Radio Lomé and Radio Kara remain ministerial public-broadcasting departments under the Ministère de la Communication, des Médias et de la Culture — directions sous tutelle organised under décret No. 2012-006/PR du 7 mars 2012 rather than autonomous public-service corporations. A 2022 decree (décret n° 2022-008/PR du 20 janvier 2022) envisaged their consolidation into a single Radio et Télévision du Togo (RTVT) entity, but the merger has not been operationalised during this review period.

Togo-Presse, the national daily newspaper, is produced by EDITOGO, a state publishing house created by loi n°61-36 du 23 novembre 1961 and reorganised into a Société d’État under loi n°90-26 du 4 décembre 1990; Agence Togolaise de Presse (ATOP), created by décret présidentiel N° 75-30 du 5 mars 1975, is the official state news agency, operating as a service public national under ministerial tutelle with 45 correspondents across the country. The supervising Minister is Yawa Kouigan, also government spokesperson.

The regulatory framework is also changing. The legacy sector regulator HAAC was being replaced and extended through the operationalisation of HARC, the Haute Autorité de Régulation de la communication écrite, audiovisuelle et numérique, provided for under the 6 May 2024 constitutional framework, in the December 2025 transition process, with a unified perimeter covering written press, audiovisual media and digital communication including online platforms. The 2020 Code de la presse et de la communication (adopted December 2019) remains the principal media-law framework and preserves the 2004 removal of custodial sentences for press offences, although journalists may still face pressure through other criminal-law, public-order or security provisions.

The 2025 protest cycle exposed continuing media-freedom risks. After the early-June 2025 arrest of rapper Aamron (Essowe Tchalla) over an online governance critique, protests spread in Lomé. TV5 Monde correspondent Flore Monteau was detained on 6 June 2025 and forced to delete footage, weeks after the April 2025 arrest of Togo Scoop editor Albert Agbeko during electoral-list-revision coverage. On 16 June 2025, HAAC suspended Radio France Internationale (RFI) and France 24 for three months, a decision condemned by CPJ, MFWA, IFJ and France Médias Monde and a demonstration of asymmetric regulatory treatment between foreign and state-controlled media. Demonstrations continued on 26-28 June 2025 with reports of arrests, violent dispersals and deaths; the government withdrew a planned 12.5 percent electricity-price increase, but the constitutional framework remained intact.

Togo nevertheless improved in the 2026 RSF World Press Freedom Index, ranking 97th of 180 with a score of 52.56, up from 121st in 2025, a 24-place rise that should be read alongside the protest-related arrests, foreign-media suspensions and continuing governance risks.

All five tracked outlets, TVT, Radio Lomé, Radio Kara, Togo-Presse / EDITOGO and ATOP, remain State-Controlled (SC) for 2026. The constitutional reform, Gnassingbé’s move to the President of the Council of Ministers role, the HAAC/HARC transition, the 2025 protest-coverage incidents, the RFI/France 24 suspension and the RSF ranking improvement have not altered the underlying structure of state ownership, government appointment authority, public-funding dependence and state-aligned editorial direction across Togo’s public-media ecosystem.

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