Fiercely partisan press deepens political tumult in Ivory Coast, opposition figure says
By Namrata Savoor
Freedomforum.org
02.19.01
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| Alassane D. Ouattara |
ARLINGTON, Va. — Newspapers in Ivory Coast often are "more militant than truthful" in covering the country's deepening political turmoil, said Alassane D. Ouattara, a leading Ivorian opposition figure, last week at the World Center.
Many newspapers are intensely partisan and routinely take sides, thus intensifying the country's ethnic and political rifts, said Ouattara, a former International Monetary Fund official who heads the Rally of the Republicans party.
Yves Sorokobi, African program coordinator for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, also said at the World Center program Feb. 14 that the Ivorian news media had "been at times quite (a) destructive force in the political process in the country."
Newspapers aligned with the ruling Ivorian Popular Front party have been notably harsh in their attacks on Ouattara and on international news media reporting the turmoil in Ivory Coast, a former French colony in West Africa known also as Côte d'Ivoire.
Soon after the Popular Front's leader, Laurent Gbagbo, became Ivorian president in disputed elections last fall, the newsrooms of two daily newspapers close to Ouattara's party were ransacked and an editor was arrested and beaten by police.
More recently, authorities raided the printing plant of the daily Le Jour newspaper in search of mercenaries and a hidden arms cache, CPJ reported. Nothing of the sort was found, but the search of Le Jour — which has achieved a reputation for its even-handed news coverage — was condemned last week by the CPJ as evidence of "the continued harassment of independent journalists" in Ivory Coast.
Ouattara, who was Ivorian prime minister in the early 1990s, was barred from running for the country's presidency last year on what he said were specious charges about his nationality. His opponents say he is not Ivorian.
The blocking of Ouattara's candidacy intensified political strife in Ivory Coast, which in the past 14 months has seen two regime changes, recurring spasms of political violence and intrigue, and frequent assaults on the news media.
A country that once was regarded as a refuge of stability in a turbulent corner of Africa has now deteriorated into a "political mess driving towards economic catastrophe," Ouattara said at the World Center.
"Unfortunately most of the newspapers are party affiliated and are not neutral … and as a result [newspaper stories often] are … more militant than truthful," he said.
Sorokobi said that during Ouattara's time as prime minister, printing presses were seized and that soldiers tortured two journalists who had written critically of the government.
Ouattara denied that journalists were treated poorly during his tenure, which lasted from 1990 to 1993. He said his administration sent young journalists for training to the United States and Germany, which improved journalism in the country.
Ouattara said he would continue to fight to for such a system despite the threats made on his life and the lives of his family.
"This type of threat will not stop the movement for democratization and the need for human rights in the Ivory Coast," he said. "We have to continue the fight."
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