Ivory Coast

September 12, 2006
Posted: September 22, 2006

Seydou Coulibaly, Le Jour Plus
Edouard Gonto, Le Jour Plus
Frédéric Koffi, Le Jour Plus
HARASSED, LEGAL ACTION

Coulibaly and Gonto were summoned on September 12 and detained overnight over a September 11 article titled “Toxic waste: Mrs. Gbagbo at the heart of the scandal,” according to Patrice Pohe, head of a local media directors’ organization, and a source at the newspaper.

May 12, 2006
Original Case: July 13, 2005

Radio France Internationale (RFI)
CENSORED

On May 12, Ivory Coast’s National Council on Audiovisual Communication (CNCA), a media regulatory agency, lifted a 10-month ban on RFI’s FM broadcasts in Abidjan following negotiations between the two sides. The CNCA had banned RFI on July 13, 2005, accusing the France-based broadcaster of biased and unethical reporting. At the time, the council ordered RFI to pay a fine of nine million CFA francs (US$17,619) and to retract two allegedly erroneous reports. RFI declined to do either.

New York, February 1, 2006—French authorities have jailed an Ivoirian army officer in connection with the 2004 disappearance in Ivory Coast of journalist Guy-André Kieffer, according to Kieffer's wife and Agence France-Presse. Osange Silou-Kieffer told CPJ today that Capt. Jean-Tony Oulaï was arrested on January 11 in Paris and is being questioned by a French judge investigating Kieffer's disappearance. On January 26, a Paris court rejected a motion seeking Oulaï's release.

New York, January 18, 2006—Hundreds of members of the radical pro-government Young Patriots militia seized control of the state television and radio broadcaster Radiodiffusion Télévision Ivoirienne (RTI) today, broadcasting calls for protests against the French and U.N. presence in the country, according to local sources. They were also said to ransack a community radio station that refused to allow them on the air.

The Young Patriots, who are loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo, had surrounded RTI's headquarters on Monday in an effort to gain access to its studios, according to the sources. The militia members finally succeeded this morning, despite the presence of government security forces. Those sources said the security forces did not appear to make any effort to halt the Young Patriots. Independent observers consider RTI a public service broadcaster with a professional news operation.