Ivory Coast: Three journalists arrested

The editor, managing editor and publisher of an Ivory Coast newspaper have been arrested and charged with theft of official documents. The senior managers of the Nouveau Courrier d’Abidjan were arrested after they printed details of a classified government report into corruption in the cocoa and coffee industries. When the managing editor, well known blogger Théophile Kouamouo, refused to give the details of his sources he was placed in custody and later charged.  In a separate incident, the National Press Council (NPC) has imposed a fine of three million CFA francs on the publisher of the newspaper, Le Temps, for publishing the results of election opinion polls.

France 24 suspended in Cote d’Ivoire

The Cote d’Ivoire government suspended transmission of the broadcaster France 24 last week citing the agency’s biased reporting of political unrest in the West African country. The National Council for Audiovisual Communication scrambled the French station’s signal on 22 February and said that it will remain blocked until further notice. This followed France 24’s coverage of an incident in the western city of Gagnoa, where government forces killed five demonstrators protesting against President Laurent Gbagbo’s decision to disband the government and electoral commission. Robert Mahoney, Deputy Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, urged the authorities to reverse this ban and “refrain from censorship”.

Libel: BBC concedes to Trafigura

royal courts
Index on Censorship and English PEN today have expressed dismay that the BBC has conceded the libel action brought by toxic waste shippers Trafigura in the High Court. We believe this is a case of such high public interest that it was incumbent upon a public sector broadcaster like the BBC to have held their ground in order to test in a Court of law the truth of the BBC’s report or determine whether a vindication of Trafigura was deserved.
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