Ivorian media’s slow death

Reporters Without Borders is deeply concerned about the continuing deterioration in the climate for the media in Côte d'Ivoire. Harassed, threatened and exposed to physical violence, journalists are now finding it virtually impossible to work freely. The press freedom organization urges civil society and the two rival camps led by Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara to respect freedom of expression and the right to news and information. All journalists, without exception, are the victims of this steady worsening in the political situation. Newspapers of all political sympathies are encountering great difficulty in operating. Journalists identified with the Gbagbo camp cannot visit and work in the north, centre and west, which are still controlled by the pro-Ouattara former rebels of the New Forces. The pro-Ouattara media are unwelcome in the Gbagbo-controlled south. Reporters and editors from four newspapers – Le Démocrate, Le Mandat, Nord Sud Quotidien and Le Nouveau Réveil – were questioned for several hours on 18 February by members of the criminal investigation police on the orders of state prosecutor Raymond Tchimou. Supervised by deputy prosecutor Mamadou Diakité, the interrogations were carried out in accordance with a report prepared by the prosecutor’s office entitled “Impact of the opposition press on Côte d’Ivoire’s post-electoral crisis.” The management of Horizon Média, the company that publishes the pro-Ouattara daily Le Mandat, said members of the Security Operations Command Centre (SECOS) attacked several of the newspaper’s employees as they were travelling to the printer’s on the evening of 18 February. As a result, the next day’s issue did not appear. The two journalists working for the pro-New Forces TV Notre Patrie who were arrested on arrival and Abidjan air base on 28 January – Sanogo Aboubakar (aka Abou Sanogo) and Kangbé Yayoro Charles Lopez (aka Gnahoré Charly) – have been incarcerated in the main Abidjan penitentiary on the orders of the Abidjan-Plateau state prosecutor . In a communiqué published on 18 February, the new president of the National Press Council (CNP), Deby Dalli Gbalawoulou, issued a stern warning to the national news media and threatened then with severe penalties. The Côte d’Ivoire Press Editors Group (GEPCI) has suspended its participation in the CNP’s new governing body. A driver employed by the Nord Sud Quotidien newspaper was kidnapped yesterday by gunmen travelling in an unmarked car. There is still no news of him. The CNP today imposed fines of 1 million CFA francs (1,525 euros) on two newspapers, Jour Plus and Le Nouveau Réveil, on the grounds that they had printed an article that defended violence. “We urge all the media not to stir up hatred and social tension in the fraught and sensitive climate currently prevailing in Côte d'Ivoire,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said. “It is now more necessary than ever to act professionally and respect journalistic ethics. Propaganda journalism must be avoided at all costs to prevent serious abuses.”