Workers of Edipress, a newspaper distribution company in Cote d’Ivoire, have been held hostage on the company’s premises by armed personnel of Gbagbo-controlled Defence and Security Forces (FDS) of the Ivorian army since 20 hours GMT on March 10, 2011.

All the distribution vans of Edipress tasked to convey the March 11 newspapers are locked up at the premises.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that the action of the FDS is to prevent the circulation of Pro-Outarra newspapers which are likely to carry the latest outcome of the 265th meeting of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU) held on March 10 reaffirming Alassane Ouattara as the President of the Country.

Earlier, the correspondent said the Gbagbo-controlled state-owned Ivorian Broadcasting Corporation (RTI) in its 8pm news misinformed the Ivorian public showing a representative of Gbagbo who said the meeting was ongoing. The UN radio had already announced that AU’s decision to recognise Ouattara as President.

Following the action of the FDS, the distributors have also refused to circulate pro-Gbagbo newspapers. Meanwhile, a meeting has been scheduled between the management of the Edipress and the FDS to find a solution to this problem.

A group of supporters of Laurent Gbagbo in Blockhauss, a village in Cocody, a suburb of Abidjan, on March 7, 2011 destroyed copies of pro-Ouattara newspapers on sale.

The pro-Ouattara newspapers returned to the newsstands after a week of absence protest against what they described as “intimidation” and “harassment” by pro-Gbagbo authorities.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that the supporters, mainly youths of Blockhauss, ransacked all the newsstands in the village and chased their managers away.

The correspondent said the supporters also expressed their determination to ban all the pro-Ouattara newspapers from circulation in the area.

The group of newspapers supporting Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognised President of Cote d’Ivoire, which stopped publishing on March 1, 2011, to protest against intimidation and harassment from pro-Gbagbo authorities, on March 7, resumed publishing after a meeting in Abidjan.

According to the group, the suspension of their action had become necessary as it would enable them to continue with the struggle of ensuring that Ouattara assumes the presidency as was clearly demonstrated by Ivoirians in the second round of the presidential round-off election in November, 2010.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that what provoked the action of these newspapers was the alleged mistreatment of some of the newspapers by the Gbagbo-controlled National Press Council (CNP). On February 25, 2011 the CNP suspended Le Nouveau Réveil for one week and imposed fines between 1 and 2 million CFA francs (about US$2,066 and 4,132) on three other dailies, Le Patriote, Nord-Sud and Le Jour Plus.

Earlier, editors and representatives of six pro-Ouattara newspapers had been grilled by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ivorian Police at the behest of the public prosecutor over their news reports in the wake of the political crisis, in the country.

The building, housing the headquaters of the state-owned Fraternité Matin newspaper group was on the night of March 5, 2011 attacked by unidentified persons.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that the attackers, who were spotted driving a tainted glass vehicle, launched missile which the police said was from a rocket-propelled grenade weapon, on the building and landed behind the account’s department.

However, the correspondent said the attack which occurred at about 21 hours GMT recorded no casualties as well as material damages.

The police have since commenced investigations into the incident.

In another development, Déby Dalli Gbalawoulou, the director of pro-Gbagbo media regulatory body, National Press Council (CNP), on March 4, 2011 received death threats from an unidentified man believed to be a supporter of Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognized President of Cote d’ Ivoire.

The correspondent said the threat was communicated through a journalist of Agence Ivoirienne de Presse (AIP), B.A. Chantal, on the telephone. The caller accused the CNP’s director of bullying pro-Ouattara newspapers.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Ivorian Journalists (UNJCI) has expressed deep worry about the continuing deterioration of the working conditions of journalists and media professionals in Cote d’Ivoire since the beginning of the current political crisis.

In a statement on March 3, UNJCI said the working environment in the country has become very dangerous and called on the Ivorian authorities to do whatever they could to preserve freedom of expression in the country.

According to the statement: “freedom of expression and press freedom must be protected at all cost and any attempt to intimidate or muzzle the media as is being done on both sides of the conflict is unacceptable”.

One foreign TV and two radio stations operating in Cote d’Ivoire have disappeared from the airwaves.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that the French television France 24 and the two radio stations, BBC and RFI, went off air on March 3 and 2, 2011 respectively.

The correspondent said that there has not been any explanation from the Laurent Gbagbo-controlled National Council for Broadcasting (CNCA), the regulatory body responsible for the broadcast media in the country, and it is also not clear whether the disappearance of the two stations has something to do with the CNCA’s directive on December 2, 2010 which sought to ban all foreign radio and TV channels operating in the country.

International media organisations covering Cote d’Ivoire have been consistently accused by Gbagbo’s government of supporting Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognised President of the country.

The correspondent said the disappearance of the two channels would deny Ivoirians access to news other than the one-sided news of state-owned Ivorian Broadcasting Corporation (RTI).

At the moment, all pro-Ouattara newspapers have ceased publication to protest what they described as harassment and intimidation by pro-Gbagbo forces. This follows the suspensions and imposition of fines last week by the Gbagbo-controlled authorities. Two pro-Ouattara journalists are currently being held at the civil prison in Abidjan in connection with activities bordering on terrorism.

Some members of the Rally of Houphouétistes for Democracy and Peace (RHDP), a group supporting Alassane Ouattara, on March 1, 2011 prevented the distribution of pro-Gbagbo newspapers in the eastern and north-eastern part of the country.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that Edipress, a newspaper distribution company, was stopped from distributing the pro-Gbagbo newspapers in several towns and forced to return to Abidjan.

The correspondent said the RHDP supporters took that action on the same day that nine pro-Ouattara newspapers suspended publication in protest against alleged harassment and intimidation from the pro-Gbagbo authorities.

The group of nine newspapers supporting Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognised President of Cote d’ Ivoire on March 1, 2011 began an indefinite suspension of their publications to protest against what they said were constant harassment and intimidation by pro-Gbagbo forces.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that what prompted the action of the newspapers was the suspension of six newspapers by the print media regulatory body, the National Press Council (CNP), which was recently constituted by Laurent Gbagbo’s government before the expiration of the old CNP.

The Gbagbo-controlled CNP in a communiqué Issued on RTI on February25 announced the suspension of the daily Le Nouveau Réveil for period of one week and also imposed fines between 1 and 2 million CFA francs (approx. 2,066 and 4,132US$) on three other dailies, Le Patriote, Nord-Sud and Le Jour Plus.

This was after editors and representatives of six Ouattara newspapers have been grilled on February 22 by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ivorian police at the behest of the public prosecutor over their news reports in the wake of the political crisis in the country. They were accused of “inciting the public to civil disobedience and insubordination with regard to the authority of the state.” The editors and journalists were interrogated on a wide range of issues including the reference to Gbagbo as “Mr. Gbagbo” and Alassane Ouattara as “President Ouattara.”

According to the group’s spokesman, Dembele Al Seni, they have been affected by high-handed political decisions by pro-Gbagbo authorities which are taking ruthless measures aimed at closing down their newspapers.

Marcel Legre, a machine operator of La Refondation Printing Press, printers of Notre Voie, a pro-Gbagbo newspaper, was in the afternoon of February 28, 2011 violently killed allegedly by militants of pro-Ouattara during an armed confrontation in the town of Koumassi in the centre of the country.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that the machetes wielding militants of the Rally of Houphouétistes for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) stormed the home of Legre who had returned home after working throughout the night of February 27 and forcibly dragged him.

According to the March 1 issue of the Notre Voie, the militants after attacking Legre dragged him to a location few metres away from his home close to a pharmacy shop, where they inflicted machete wounds to his head and the rest of his body, until he was killed. The attackers then abandoned his body in the embers of tyres they have set on fire.

The newspaper alleged that Legre was murdered because he working for La Refondation.

In another development, transmission of state-owned Ivorian Broadcasting Corporation (RTI) was interrupted in the country, especially in the Abidjan district following clash between the Gbagbo and Ouattara forces which resulted in fire destroying the equipment of the station’s transmitting centre at Abobo in the north of the capital.

Ladji Aboubacar Sanogo and Kangbé Yayoro, two reporters of pro-Ouattara Télévision Notre Patrie (TVNP) in Bouaké, the second largest city in Coté d’ I voire were sent back to prison custody on February 24, 2011 after being denied bail by public prosecutor office in connection with alleged terrorists activities.

Sanogo and Kangbé are facing a charge relating to an “offence against national security” for working for TVNP, which belongs to the Forces Nouvelles that waged a rebellion against Gbagbo’s government in the early 2000s. The trial is expected to commence on February 28.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that the Public Prosecutor’s office in Abidjan (Plateau) presided over by Justice Mme Guéhi Kointahin Nathalie refused the bail on the grounds that the case of two journalists has not been heard.

The correspondent said it followed an application for bail filed on February 21 by Coulibaly Brahima and Soro Idrissa, lawyers of the accused.

Sanogo and Kangbé have been in detention since their arrests by the Defence and Security Forces of the Ivorian army, loyal to Laurent Gbagbo on January 28. After their arrests, they were tortured severely and sent to the headquaters of the National Gendarmerie before being transferred to the Abidjan civil Prison (MACA) on February 18.