Subject: (English version) COTE D'IVOIRE - Media freedom set back 20 years
English (http://en.rsf.org/cote-d-ivoire-media-freedom-set-back-20-years-10-02-2011,39531.html)
For French version see (http://fr.rsf.org/cote-d-ivoire-un-recul-de-vingt-ans-pour-la-10-02-2011,39530.html)
Reporters Without Borders (http://www.rsf.org)
Alert
10 February 2011
COTE D'IVOIRE
Media freedom set back 20 years
Reporters
Without Borders is deeply disturbed by a clampdown on the media by Laurent
Gbagbo’s government. The leadership of the National Press Council (CNP), which
regulates the print media, has just been replaced by Gbagbo's supporters. The
UN radio station, Onuci FM, has had
its permit withdrawn. And many journalists are still exposed to the threat of
violence.
“Laurent
Gbagbo’s government has just taken over the CNP, a regulatory body known for
being serious and impartial,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general
Jean-François Julliard said. “It has seized control in an arbitrary and
politically-motivated move. Given the political affiliation of the people
co-opted by the Gbagbo camp to replace its leadership, we fear the CNP will
cease to perform its regulatory function and will henceforth be used to punish
opposition journalists and media harshly, and to protect media that are loyal
to Gbagbo.”
Julliard
added: “A manoeuvre of this kind is liable to set Côte d'Ivoire back 20 years
in terms of respect for media freedom.”
The CNP’s
president, Eugène Dié Kacou, and its
entire board of governors were fired by a presidential decree signed by Gbagbo
on 4 February. Kacou has been replaced by Débi
Dally, who, as head of the Ivorian
Press Agency (AIP), fired AIP
journalists for covering a march on the state-owned Radio-Télévision Ivoirienne (RTI) organized by the opposition
Houphouëtiste Rally for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) on 16 December.
Several
journalists who are members or known supporters of Gbagbo’s party, the Ivorian
Popular Front (FPI), have been appointed to the CNP. They include César Etou, the editor of the
pro-Gbagbo newspaper Notre Voie, and N'Goran Aliali, the publisher of Le Quotidien, a newspaper funded by
Gbagbo’s son-in-law, Stéphane Kipré. Armand
Bohoui, a member of first lady Simone Gbagbo’s staff and a former Notre Voie journalist, has also been
appointed to the CNP.
Kacou was
fired regardless of the fact that he was appointed for an irrevocable
three-year period in 2009. The Ivorian authorities have provided no official
reason for his dismissal but they have openly accused the CNP of being too soft
on the opposition press.
Gbagbo’s
communication minister, Ouattara Gnonzié, set the tone by telling Radio France Internationale that “the
end of tolerance was a self-defence measure” and that calls for sedition or
insurrection would henceforth be “punished harshly.”
Without
even notifying the management of the Côte d'Ivoire branch of the French TV
channel Canal+, Gnonzié gave orders
for the Canal+ equipment stored at a
transmission centre in the Abidjan district of Abobo to be requisitioned for
three months from 8 February.
The
broadcasting permit of Onuci FM, the
radio station operated by the United Nations peace-keeping mission in Côte
d'Ivoire (ONUCI), was cancelled yesterday. “The frequencies assigned to ONUCI
as part of the execution of its mandate in Côte d'Ivoire are withdrawn,” the
National Council for Broadcasting Communication (CNCA) said in a communiqué
that was read out on RTI.
Finally,
Reporters Without Borders reiterates its concern about two journalists employed
by Télévision Notre Patrie (TVNP) – a
TV station that supports the former rebel New Force – who have been held at the
gendarmerie’s criminal investigation department since their arrest on their
arrival in Abidjan on 28 January. The two journalists, Abou Sanogo and Gnahoré
Charly, are charged with “rebellion” and “threatening national security.”
Local
retransmission of the French TV news channels TV5 and France 24 is
meanwhile still suspended.
----
Ambroise PIERRE
Bureau Afrique / Africa Desk
Reporters sans frontières / Reporters Without Borders
47, rue Vivienne
75002 Paris, France
Tel : (33) 1 44 83 84 76
Fax : (33) 1 45 23 11 51
Email :
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