Côte d'Ivoire

Ousmane Sy Savané was released provisionally on World Press Freedom Day, after being held for just over 13 months on a charge of endangering state security.

Côte d’Ivoire’s statutory press regulatory body has suspended Prestige Mag, a privately-owned weekly magazine, for eight editions, accusing it of publishing offensive articles.

The head office of the Ivorian media group Nord Sud Communication, publishers of the pro-government daily Nord-Sud, was burgled in the early hours of 7 November 2012.

On 17 September, 2012, Côte d’Ivoire’s statutory press regulatory body – The National Press Council (CNP) – lifted suspension sanctions it had imposed on six privately-owned pro-Gbagbo newspapers. The suspensions had been enforced after the media outlets jointly republished an article that was originally published by Notre Voie, also a pro-Gbagbo daily.

An Ivoirian government security detail assaulted a journalist covering the eviction of a senior official’s family, seizing his equipment and leaving him bleeding and bruised.

On 7 September 2012, Côte d’Ivoire’s statutory print regulatory body imposed a ban on six publications of a privately owned, pro-Gbagbo daily.

MFWA’s 62-page report traces the development and role of the media in Côte d’lvoire from independence to present times.

The attack on Cyclone’s offices was carried out by six men armed with steel bars, clubs, an automatic pistol and a can of inflammable liquid.

The Côte d’Ivoire National Press Council banned the Bôl’ Kotch newspaper from publishing for its next eight editions after it printed cartoons of President Alassane Outarra.

On the eve of President Alassane Ouattara’s first state visit to France, RSF congratulates him on making necessary improvements but says that much more still needs to be done.

New York, June 12, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Ivorian police’s assault on a journalist on June 5 and calls on authorities to ensure the officers are brought to justice. Two officers attacked Cybèle Athangba, a reporter with the daily La Nouvelle, while she was covering a protest of about 100 police officers […]

The decision of the regulatory body follows the publication of material that the commission says amounts to distortion of facts.

The DST denied holding Savané, but his car is parked in the DST building’s courtyard and several sources say he was taken there after his arrest.

The new code of ethics is an outcome of the first phase of a media sector reform project undertaken by MFWA in partnership with IMS.

Charles Sanga and Jean-Claude Coulibaly were detained after they refused to disclose the source of a leaked story that ran in “Le Patriote” earlier in the week.

Charles Sanga was arrested due to an article published in “Le Patriote”, which stated that the Constitutional Council had decided to annul parliamentary elections in 11 districts where results had been disputed; information that had not yet been announced publicly.