Government, watchdog condemn attacks against media

Cote d'Ivoire's government and an institution which monitors press freedom and the respect of journalistic ethics have condemned a spate of attacks and threats against the media in recent weeks. The attacks were perpetrated after 19 September, when an unsuccessful coup attempt marked the start of a month-long insurgency. The latest ones included the destruction of equipment and installations at the Manyama Editions media house on 16 October, and a similar attack on the private Radio Nostalgie on 17 October. Both Manyama Editions and Radio Nostalgie are owned by an associate of opposition Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR) leader Alassane Dramane Ouattara, accused by his detractors of supporting rebels who occupy much of central and northern Cote d'Ivoire. According to the Observatoire de la liberte de la presse, de l'ethique et de la deontologie (OLPED), Radio Nostalgie was plundered by armed men in uniform at around 21:00 GMT. A curfew imposed following the aborted coup begins each night at 21:00 GMT/local time. The attacks were condemned by international media and press freedom watchdogs - the Committee to Protect Journalists as well as Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF), which sent a team to Cote d’Ivoire last week. The RSF team discussed the attacks and coverage of the conflict in Cote d’Ivoire with media and government representatives. OLPED also condemned the attacks against the two media houses as well as others which preceded them. These include a failed attempt on 14 October to abduct the editor-in-chief of l'Actuel and 'Notre Voie', two newspapers considered close to the ruling Front Populaire Ivoirien. The editor-in-chief of another newspaper, 'Le Nouveau Reveil' and his team were also threatened with abduction and physical aggression, OLPED said on Friday in a communique. Other incidents cited by the OLPED included the abduction of a journalist from the state-run radio and television station, RTI, and that of an Ivorian working as a correspondent of the French news agency, Agence France Presse, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Each was released a week after. A correspondent of Cote d'Ivoire's national news agency, AIP, was also abducted and released. The observatory recalled that the installations of the British Broadcasting Corporation and Radio France Internationale were destroyed and that, as a result, they can no longer broadcast on FM in Cote d'Ivoire. It also said the RTI's transmission centre in an Abidjan neighbourhood, Abobo, had been attacked thrice. "The OLPED asks all insurgents, all militants and all young people, whatever their political affiliation, to show tolerance towards journalists and media houses," the watchdog institution urged. Communication Minister Sery Bailly condemned the attacks, which he blamed on "intolerance and the tensions which have mounted by many degrees in the war situation in which we live". He said they were also linked to "the rancour which has built up as a result of a dubious handling of information in our country". "I am convinced that recourse to violence is retrogressive and that reducing any organ or journalist to silence is a collective impoverishment" he said," That is why on behalf of the government I deplore and condemn all these aggressions, all these threats." "Leave journalists alone," he urged, so as to allow them to "contribute to the defence of freedom and nation-building".