Ivory Coast Papers Halt Publication, BBC and RFI Off the Air

Ivory Coast’s eight privately owned opposition newspapers and one independent suspended publication starting yesterday to protest threats and harassment by the supporters of incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo.

The dailies “are regularly threatened about attacks and acts of vandalism,” said an alliance of newspapers that back Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognized winner of the Nov. 28 election.

The National Press Council, headed since early February by Gbagbo’s supporters, barred publication of le Nouvel Reveil newspaper for a week on Feb. 26, while three other Abidjan-based newspapers were fined as much as 2 million CFA francs ($4,210).

“Our concern for press freedom in Cote d’Ivoire is mounting by the day,” Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The situation “has become impossible for the press.”

Radio broadcasts by the British Broadcasting Corp. and Radio France Internationale were unavailable in Abidjan today. The National Broadcasting Council, which pulled the stations temporarily off the air in December, said it was not responsible for the shut-down.

“We don’t have anything to do with that,” said Franck Anderson Kouassi, president of the council, by phone. “It is an act of sabotage,” he said, without giving further details.

The BBC is “investigating the cause of these problems and potential solutions,” according to statement e-mailed by Peter Connors, the broadcaster’s London-based corporate communications manager. RFI said the broadcasts were halted since the morning without “official explanation.”