Côte d'Ivoire

Just two lines in the proposed electronic communications bill can change the fate of journalists in the Ivory Coast.

Telecommunications companies, civic groups and state entities in Ghana, Togo and Cote d’Ivoire harness the power of technology in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ivorian journalist Jonas Baikeh was forced to go into hiding after receiving death threats from ruling party supporters for his real time report on the collapse of a government official.

Journalists are being targeted by security agents, politicians and party supporters as the Ivory Coast election draws closer.

Ivorian journalist Claude Dasse was detained and assaulted by an official at a prison where he was investigating allegations of extortion.

Six journalists and two managing editors have been heavily fined in separate cases in just over a month in Côte d’Ivoire.

Opposition Member of Parliament Alain Lobognon has been sentenced to one year in prison for his Twitter post in what is being regarded as a political power ploy.

The MFWA and its national partner organisations in West Africa have welcomed the decision of the Ivorian government to withdraw the controversial press bill, sections of which sought to criminalise speech.

Côte d’Ivoire’s new media bill has the potential to be exploited by politicians and influential people to settle scores with critical journalists, and encourage self-censorship.

The six journalists still face charges of “undermining state security and inciting soldiers to acts of insubordination and rebellion.”

A group of angry youth attacked the home of the regional correspondent of an Ivorian independent daily, Soir Info, in Dabou. The assailants accused the journalist of filing reports that portrayed their community as a town still in turmoil.

All political actors in Cote d’Ivoire should make a commitment to peaceful elections, 15 Ivorian and international organizations said several days before the first round of presidential elections. The groups expressed their concern over the treatment of a number of opposition activists detained over their involvement in unauthorized protests.

A statement issued The Conseil National de la Presse (CNP) accused Le Monde d’ Abidjan of “publishing insults to an extreme gravity” against the Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, in its 29 January issue. This is the fifth newspaper that the CNP has sanctioned this year.

Reporters Without Borders is alarmed by the climate of intimidation for Ivorian journalists after Tomorrow Magazine editor Désiré Oué’s murder on 14 November and Le Nouveau Réveil reporter Dieusmonde Tadé’s overnight abduction four days later.