Benin, the HAAC opens its 2nd ordinary session of 2026 under the sign of firmness and innovation.

The president of the High Authority for Audiovisual and Communication (HAAC), Édouard Cocou Loko, opened this Thursday the proceedings of the second ordinary session of the year, in front of the advisors of the 7th mandate. “We have work to do,” he summarized in his opening remarks, before outlining a busy agenda for the next four months.

The renewal of the agreements concluded with the first generation of online media is among the main tasks of this session. The institution will engage in the same process with the more recently authorized online media.

The HAAC also intends to complete the call for applications for the allocation of new frequencies. The president of the institution justified this approach by the need to regularize media operating so far outside the legal framework and to provide radios to localities that lack them. “We will give them the opportunity,” he stated, adding that the media already in operation also needed to be stimulated by increased competition.

A warning to the media

Édouard Loko praised the behavior of the majority of the media in the context of the current political truce, citing newsrooms that have prioritized topics of general interest and investigative work. However, he firmly warned against newsrooms that engage in media vendettas. “These professionals of invective and diatribe want to exist, that is their right,” he stated, specifying that this type of content has no place in the media. “We have returned, with a firmer hand than ever,” he warned, reaffirming the institution’s determination to enforce the rules governing the practice of journalism.

The president of the HAAC also praised the collaboration of the institution with the National Council for Information and Nomenclature (CNIN) and the Special Prosecutor at the Court for the Repression of Economic Offenses and Terrorism (CRIET), which he deemed beneficial for all media professionals.

Amid ongoing monitoring, dialogue with industry stakeholders, renewal of agreements, regularization of media, and improvement of territorial coverage, the session promises to be intensive for the advisors, to whom Édouard Loko has called to balance field presence and progress on files. “I am counting on the commitment of everyone,” he concluded.

The work of this second ordinary session will extend over four months, continuing the efforts to sanitize and structure the Beninese media landscape initiated by the institution.