RSF pinpoints attacks against media

Reporters without Borders (RSF - Reporters sans Frontieres) protested on Monday against the treatment of media and journalists in Cote d'Ivoire and Togo. TOGO RSF called on the Togolese authorities to authorise a private radio station, Tropik FM, to go back on the air. Tropik was closed "until further notice" on 28 February by the Haute Autorité de l'audiovisuel et de la communication (HAAC) - the organ that regulates the broadcast media in Togo - which claimed it had allowed the opposition to insult the regime of President Gnassingbe Eyadema. Tropic is the second private radio to be closed in Togo in a little over a year. Radio Victoire went off the air on 7 February 2002 for not heeding an instruction from the HAAC to stop broadcasting programmes it said were emotional and libellous, and discredited the Togolese authorities. One of the programmes had denounced human rights violations in the country. COTE D'IVOIRE RSF lauded a decision on Friday by Cote d'Ivoire's government to allow three foreign radio stations - RFI, BBC and Africa No. 1 - to resume FM transmissions. RSF Secretary-General Robert Menard said this was "an encouraging first step" which, however, "should not mask the almost daily violations of press freedom in Cote d'Ivoire". One day after the decision, "foreign journalists were roughed up while covering a press conference by the head of state", Menard noted in a letter to a follow-up committee that has been monitoring the implementation of an accord concluded in Marcoussis, France, by the various parties to Cote d'Ivoire's crisis. The Follow-Up Committee had announced on Friday that the three international radio stations that had been censored since September 2002 had once again been authorised to broadcast on FM. However, on 1 March, a team from the French television channel, France 2, and reporters from Agence France-Presse (AFP) were insulted and roughed up by security forces and civilians when they went to cover a press conference by President Laurent Gbagbo. They were accused of being enemies of Cote d'Ivoire and of selling out the country. "We ... would like the follow-up committee to pursue its efforts, to do everything possible, to obtain protection measures for journalists who request them and stop the propagation of hateful and xenophobic ideas in certain Ivorian newspapers," Menard said. Reporters sans frontières said it was also asking the committee to look into the disappearance of Kloueu Gonzreu, a correspondent of the Ivorian news agency, l'Agence ivoirienne de presse (AIP), in the western town of Toulepleu. He has been missing since 11 January when, according to his relatives, he was arrested by Liberian militamen who have been guarding villages in the area against anti-government rebels. RSF said many people detained along with him, including his 19-year-old son, were later found dead.