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Côte d'Ivoire
Political leaders
urged to keep their promises about press freedom
Ivorian journalists are still working
amid constant lawlessness. Reporters Without Borders
calls on all national and local politicians to stick to
the promises they made at the January 2003 Marcoussis
peace conference to respect press freedom.
Reporters Without
Borders today called on all Côte d'Ivoire's national and
local politicians to keep the promises they made about
press freedom as part of the January 2003 Marcoussis
Agreement aimed at ending the country's civil war.
It said journalists
still faced a climate of constant lawlessness and that
despite advances in the national reconciliation process,
arrests, threats and physical attacks on them had not
diminished.
"Harassment comes from
all sides," it said. "Local bosses in some areas of the
north ban journalists from going there and threaten and
arrest them and seize their equipment. In
government-controlled areas, police and other officials
are doing the harassment."
"All political and
military leaders must stick to the promises they made so
journalists can work properly and well. This includes
curbing the excesses of soldiers and police," it said.
Newspaper
distribution has been disrupted in Bouaké and other
rebel-controlled towns in the north after attacks on
vendors. The state-run TV station RTI is still only
broadcast in the southern part of the country despite
promises by communications minister Guillaume Soro,
leader of the rebel New Forces and a member of the
national unity government.
Eleven journalists have
been threatened, arrested or physically attacked so far
this year. They include Jonas Ouattara Nagolourgo, a
photographer with the daily Notre Voie, who was
threatened on 3 January by armed members of the New
Forces in the north. His photos were seized and
destroyed. Danielle Tagro Sylvie and Thierry Gouégnon,
of the privately-owned daily Le Courrier d'Abidjan, were
detained by the technical education minister during a
student demonstration at the ministry on 16 January and
Ms Tagro manhandled.
Georges Gobet, an Agence
France-Presse photographer, was hit by police on 20
January at the opening of the trial of French journalist
Jean Hélène's killer. Ibrahim Diarra and Charles Sanga,
of the daily Le Patriote, and Franck Konaté, of the
daily 24 Heures, were physically attacked by
presidential guards during an official ceremony in
Yamoussoukro on 31 January.
Emmanuel Konan,
correspondent of the daily Fraternité Matin in the
western town of Daloa, was arrested by a local warlord
on 11 February and his equipment confiscated. A few days
later, Youssouf Sylla and Diallo Mohamed, correspondents
for Fraternité Matin in Bouaké, were forced to flee
under after threats by local political bosses. Polycarpe
Ilboudo, a photographer with the independent daily Le
Jour Plus, was arrested on 21 February without
explanation and questioned by police in Abidjan after an
ID check.
Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists
and press freedom throughout the world, as well as the
right to inform the public and to be informed, in
accordance with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. Reporters Without borders has nine
national sections (in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany,
Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United
Kingdom), representatives in Abidjan, Bangkok, Buenos
Aires, Istanbul, Montreal, Moscow, New York, Tokyo and
Washington and more than a hundred correspondents
worldwide.
©
Reporters Without Borders 2002
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The non-profit RAHA's has been moving around in exile and
fighting and surviving censorship in Afghanistan and Iran,
propagating the freedom of reading, writing and speech.
Presently,
due to financial
problems, the main RAHA website is not available (http://rahapen.org)
online. Every third world writer knows that they have to
face lots of problems like censorship, the illiterate
masses, and leading a decent life in difficult
circumstances. Writers are even forced to work in kilns and
factories.
This was the reason
RAHA chose the Internet as a forum for all to write and read what
they wish, sans any fear. In the last two years, RAHA had to face
the sponsorship threat even while operating on the net. And many
global and local associations felt supporting RAHA's protest
movement is a big risk for them. This is a reminder that RAHA is
here to stay: now with Kabul Press, without losing out on any of the
objectives that RAHA has been fighting for. All the RAHA pages will
reappear on Kabul Press verbatim. The URL is
raha@kabulpress.org.
In case of any query please do write to us:
info@rahapen.org. And
please support RAHA by
contacting
supportraha@kabulpress.org
In the meantime, all
efforts will be taken to reactive and revive RAHA's main website.
Let's keep our fingers crossed.
RAHA editor-in-chief
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