(MFWA/IFEX) – Aboueu Tiô, a correspondent for the daily “Le Nouveau Réveil”, has been receiving death threats since October 20, 2005 in Adzopé, about 50 km east of Abidjan. “Le Nouveau Réveil” newspaper is close to the PDCI-RDA party, now in opposition. Tiô also received an anonymous telephone call on the night of October 25, […]
(MFWA/IFEX) – Aboueu Tiô, a correspondent for the daily “Le Nouveau Réveil”, has been receiving death threats since October 20, 2005 in Adzopé, about 50 km east of Abidjan. “Le Nouveau Réveil” newspaper is close to the PDCI-RDA party, now in opposition.
Tiô also received an anonymous telephone call on the night of October 25, which said that his hideout was known by his pursuers.
According to Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)-Côte d’Ivoire sources, Tiô wrote to his employer, Denis Kah Zion, stating that armed men in plainclothes were in Adzopé to kill him.
In a letter published on Friday, October 28 in “Le Nouveau Réveil”, Tiô alleged that certain pro-Ivorian Popular Front (FPI, ruling party) youths had leaked the decisions taken during secret meetings held about him.
In another development, on October 31, publishers of the pro-opposition daily “Le Jour Plus” decided to suspend its publication indefinitely as a precautionary measure following repeated death threats received by its journalists.
According to a press statement issued by the newspaper’s management on October 31, “Given the danger hanging over the media house and its staff, the daily newspaper ‘Le Jour Plus’ regrets to inform all its readers, partners and advertisers that with effect from Monday, October 31, 2005, it is suspending its appearance until further notice as a protest and appeal to the authorities.”
Pro-opposition journalists complain of telephone calls threatening them and of suspicious movements around their offices. The editor-in-chief of the daily “Le Front”, a newspaper close to the New Forces, reported that he was forced to move to escape an attack suggested in a telephone call he received.
Mr. Stephane Beynouah, chief editor of the weekly “Le Nouveau JD”, a pro-opposition newspaper, wondered in his editorial of October 31 what those who ceaselessly threaten his newspaper really want. “Within the space of three days we have received calls raining insults on us. About a hundred, if I’m not mistaken,” he wrote.
Earlier in the week, a journalist with the newspaper was arrested by gendarmes following an article carried in the October 16 issue of the newspaper.
In the article entitled, “Bush grants Gbagbo a reprieve”, the journalist exposed possible scenarios that could result after October 30, the date officially marking the end of Laurent Gbagbo’s presidency.
Théodore Sinzé, sub-editor of “Le Jour Plus”, another opposition daily, also received death threats from an anonymous caller.
Another daily, “Dernière Heure Express”, has been forced to relocate its offices for a week to escape the threat of an army swoop on its premises.
