(CPJ/IFEX) – In a 13 September 2000 letter to President Robert Gueï, CPJ stated that it is gravely disturbed by the continued brutal persecution of journalists who criticize the president and the activities of his military government. CPJ is particularly alarmed at the recent beating of Joachim Beugré, editor of the private daily “Le Jour”, […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – In a 13 September 2000 letter to President Robert Gueï, CPJ stated that it is gravely disturbed by the continued brutal persecution of journalists who criticize the president and the activities of his military government. CPJ is particularly alarmed at the recent beating of Joachim Beugré, editor of the private daily “Le Jour”, by three soldiers under President Gueï’s command.
Beugré and his publisher, Diegou Bailly, were summoned to the presidential palace in Abidjan on the afternoon of 8 September, according to CPJ sources in Côte d’Ivoire. President Gueï interrogated the two journalists personally and pressed them to reveal their sources for an article about his parentage that had appeared in that day’s edition of “Le Jour”.
Published under Beugré’s byline, the article pointed out that the president’s surname is different from the father’s surname that appears on his birth certificate. “Le Jour” published a copy of the birth certificate to support Beugré’s argument.
Bailly was released without charge, according to local press reports confirmed by CPJ sources, after President Gueï explained to him that in his tribe a son does not take his father’s surname. The matter did not end there, however. Acting on the president’s orders, three soldiers drove Beugré to his Abidjan home, which they searched without warrant. The soldiers then took the journalist to an open field near Abidjan International Airport, beat him savagely, and threatened even harsher retribution if he continued to report “maliciously” about the president and the military junta.
Beugré spent four days in a hospital recuperating from his injuries.
Later on 8 September, Information Minister Captain Henri-Cesar Sama summoned all Abidjan-based publishers and editors-in-chief to his office and ordered them to stop covering the activities of the Army and the ruling National Public Salvation Committee (CNSP). The minister claimed that negative media coverage had
“weakened the CNSP,” and added that “civilians would be the first to “suffer” if the junta was destabilized as a result of bad press.
Meanwhile, National Union of Côte d’Ivoire Journalists president Honorat Dé Yedagne, who interviewed President Gueï shortly after the attack on Beugré, quoted him as saying that as far as he was concerned, “human rights no longer existed in Côte d’Ivoire,” and that he was not responsible for the behavior of his soldiers.
CPJ condemns all such reckless statements by President Gueï and other high-ranking junta officers, which have contributed to the degradation of press freedom in Côte d’Ivoire since the president seized power last December. Moreover, President Gueï has shown little interest in reversing this trend. On 5 July, in fact, one day after the banning of the popular independent station Radio Nostalgie, he publicly threatened local journalists with severe punishment for alleged “bias” and “distortion of facts” in their reporting (see IFEX alert of 7 July 2000).
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the president:
– condemning in the strongest terms his interrogation of journalists Bailly and Beugré
– stating that you hold him directly responsible for the abuse that Beugré suffered from soldiers under his command
– urging him to cease using brute force to stifle legitimate criticism of his government
Appeals To
APPEALS TO:
President Robert Gueï
La Primature
Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
Fax: +225 20 32 90 77
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
