The Challenging Reality of Dictatorship

Michael Hedges March 9, 2011 Follow on Twitter

Civil strife is never easy on the eyes. Tension begets hatred, which begets violence, supporters of all sides participating. Media is, then, tangled in the conflict; hostile, rough and ugly.

During the afternoon Monday last (February 28) an angry mob entered the home of pressman Marcel Legré near Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire’s largest city. He had worked through the previous night getting out the morning newspaper Notre Voie. The mob dragged him into the street, inflicted multiple blows with machetes. His dead body was left amidst burning tires.

Violence has been rife in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), accented by the recent election in which long-time strongman Laurent Gbagbo was voted out. Instead of riding off into the sunset with the spoils of dictatorship he decided to stay. Nearly every country and the United Nations (UN) have recognized his opponent, Alassane Ouattara, as the country’s president.

Since reading himself the oath of office last December, Mr. Gbagbo has become even more prickly at any sort of criticism, internal and external. He ordered UN and French troops out of the country. They stayed and continue to protect Mr. Ouattara who remains cloistered in a hotel. Ivorian militias under Mr. Gbagbo’s command have engaged UN forces sporadically over the last three months. Attempts at brokering a political solution have largely failed as no side is ready to give up.

The mob that murdered Marcel Legré was reportedly associated with Rally of Houphouétistes for Democracy and Peace (RHDP), political opponents of Mr. Gbagbo. According to Notre Voie, reported by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) (March 3), he was targeted because he worked for the printing house La Refondation, affiliated with Mr. Gbagbo’s supporters.

Media in Côte d'Ivoire is polarized, to the say the least. State broadcaster Radio Télévision Ivoirienne (RTI), firmly under Mr. Gbagbo’s control, was condemned by the European Union for “public incitement to hatred and violence through the participation in disinformation campaigns.” The French government (March 3) expressed “grave concern given the continued deterioration of the situation with respect to the violation of the freedom of expression and interference with the media’s ability to operate freely.”

“Ivorian state television has always broadcast something vaguely resembling what we think of as news,” wrote Marco Chown Oved in the Christian Science Monitor (March 3). “It's normal in this country where standard operating procedure is to pay journalists to come to your event and report on it. And like many west African countries, TV knows who's paying the bills, so heaping praise on 'His Excellence' Laurent Gbagbo is always a good bet.” RTI was briefly taken off the air (February 28) when an explosion rocked the transmitter site.

Protected by UN peacekeepers inside the Golf Hotel, Mr. Ouattara’s supporters set up their own radio and television station. Several newspapers favoring Mr. Ouattara, eight or nine depending on the source, suspended publication (March 1) citing “constant harassment and intimidation,” reported MFWA.  Editors of six pro-Ouattara newspapers were interrogated (February 22) by the Ivorian Criminal Investigations Department on a public prosecutor’s complaint of “inciting the public to civil disobedience and insubordination with regard to the authority of the state.” The publications had made reference to “President Ouattara” and “Mr. Gbagbo”. The six newspapers were suspended from publication by the Gbagbo-controlled newspaper regulator National Press Council (Conseil National de la Presse – CNP).

Shortly after the oath-taking, real and imagined, in December the CNCA ordered all foreign broadcasters off the air. Nothing happened until last week (March 3) when radio relays of BBC and Radio France International (RFI) programs and France24 television went dark without further explanation from the CNCA. The French international broadcasters have long irritated Mr. Gbagbo, who previously ordered RFI off in 2008 and France 24 last February only to allow them to return after negotiations. The European Union placed CNCA president Frank Anderson Kouassi on the list of Gbagbo functionaries banned from traveling to the EU.

The United Nations Office in Côte d'Ivoire (ONUCI) has operated a radio station, ONUCI FM or Peace Radio, since 2004, part of the UN peacekeeping mandate. The Ivorian broadcast regulator National Council for Broadcasting (Conseil National de Communication et Audiovisuel - CNCA), still controlled by Mr. Gbagbo, ordered it off the air (February 9), which the station ignored. “First of all, the United Nations only recognizes Alassane Ouatarra as the elected President of Côte d'Ivoire and secondly, the transmitters for the radio are located in the UN compound throughout the country, which are secured by UN forces,” said station director Sylvain Semilinko to UN Radio (February 10). “So it might be very challenging for Mr. Gbagbo to implement this decision.”

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