MARCH 29, 2005 Posted: April 14, 2005 Fofana Mambé, Soir Info ATTACKED Mambé, a reporter for the private daily Soir Info, was viciously attacked while attempting to cover a street demonstration by police officers in the commercial capital, Abidjan. Local sources said police officers protesting non-payment of war-time bonuses in front of the Internal Security…
New York, November 12, 2004—Antoine Massé, a correspondent for the private daily Le Courrier d’Abidjan, was fatally shot November 7 while covering violent clashes between French troops and demonstrators in the western Ivoirian town of Duékoué, his editor told the Committee to Protect Journalists today. CPJ called on French and Ivoirian authorities to conduct thorough…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged by Thursday’s violent attacks on four private newspapers in Abidjan, and by a government ban against eight newspapers. These grave attacks on press freedom came as hostilities resumed in the rebel-held north of the country. We are also alarmed at the silencing of three international radio stations in Abidjan, reportedly by an act of sabotage.
New York, October 15, 2004—Ivory Coast journalist Amadou Dagnogo, who disappeared from the rebel-held town of Bouake nearly two months ago, was flown to the commercial capital, Abidjan, yesterday by French peacekeepers. Dagnogo, the Bouake correspondent for Abidjan-based independent daily L’Inter, said he had been detained by rebels for six days but had escaped. In…
New York, October 4, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by reports that a correspondent for the private daily L’Inter has gone missing from the rebel-held town of Bouake after receiving threats from rebels. Amadou Dagnogo was last seen on August 28 by a neighbor, according to L’Inter Editor Charles d’Almeida. Before disappearing,…
New York, August 3, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has learned that imprisoned Ivoirian journalist Gaston Bony, publication director of the weekly newspaper Le Venin and a host at the radio station La Voix de l’Agnéby, was provisionally released on July 28. Bony had served more than four months of a six-month sentence for…
New York, June 2, 2004—A brother-in-law of Ivory Coast’s first lady has been formally charged as an accessory in the kidnapping, confinement, and murder of Guy-André Kieffer, a missing freelance journalist with both French and Canadian citizenship, according to international news reports. Michel Legré, the accused, has been in detention since May 25 in the…
New York, April 21, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply troubled by the disappearance of French-Canadian freelance journalist Guy-André Kieffer, one of the few foreign investigative reporters still based in Ivory Coast. Kieffer had been receiving death threats in recent weeks, according to his family and friends, who fear that he has been…
New York, April 8, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has learned that journalist Gaston Bony, publication director of Le Venin weekly newspaper and a host at the radio station La Voix de l’Agnéby, has been sentenced to six months in prison on criminal defamation charges. On March 24, a court in Agboville, a town…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is disturbed by a series of recent attacks against journalists by security forces during recent mass opposition demonstrations in the Ivory Coast. While more than half a dozen Ivoirian journalists have reported being physically attacked by officials, many more were arrested, intimidated, and harassed while covering the protests.