(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders has voiced concern at the arrest of Coulibaly Seydou, the managing editor of the privately-owned daily “Le Jour Plus”, and Edouard Gonto, one of his journalists, because of an article claiming the president’s wife, Simone Gbagbo, was partly responsible for the dumping of toxic waste in Abidjan. “This is a […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders has voiced concern at the arrest of Coulibaly Seydou, the managing editor of the privately-owned daily “Le Jour Plus”, and Edouard Gonto, one of his journalists, because of an article claiming the president’s wife, Simone Gbagbo, was partly responsible for the dumping of toxic waste in Abidjan.
“This is a scandal that only makes sense if you accept that the laws do not apply when the media criticise the president’s wife,” the press freedom organisation said. “The fact that a newspaper violates a taboo is no excuse for circumventing the law to get two journalists imprisoned. The only option for the authorities now is to release Seydou and Gonto at once.”
Press offences ceased to be punishable by imprisonment in Côte d’Ivoire after the law was amended last year.
Seydou and Gonto were summoned by the prosecutor general on 12 September 2006 after the newspaper ran a special feature on the toxic waste dumped in Abidjan, which has been blamed for a number of deaths. They were held overnight at the gendarmerie’s criminal investigation department and were taken to the prosecutor’s office on the morning of 13 September.
It was not know what charges would be brought against them as the hearing was still continuing as this press release was issued.
In its 11 September issue, “Le Jour Plus” published a dossier entitled, “Toxic waste: Mme Gbagbo at the heart of the scandal.” In one of the articles, Gonto claimed that President Laurent Gbagbo’s wife, the director-general of Abidjan’s port and the governor of the district of Abidjan all approved the deal under which the owner of the merchant vessel Probo Kaola was able to offload waste in various places in the city using a specially-created company. The article said the president’s office was nonetheless unaware that the waste was toxic and was misled about the quantity involved.
