Emergency funds for targeted journalist unable to get medical treatment
* Reporters Without Borders is providing temporary financial assistance to Awa Ehoura, a journalist who presented the 8 p.m. news programme on state-owned Radio-Télévision Ivoirienne (RTI) when Laurent Gbagbo was president.
Like other prominent people regarded as supporters of the former president, her bank accounts have been frozen since his fall from power in early 2011. And, as a result of being suspended by RTI, she ceased to have medical insurance cover on 12 January, so she has been left without any way to get treatment for her diabetes.
As a result, Reporters Without Borders yesterday sent her funds to cover her medical bills and the medicine she needs to buy.
“ Awa Ehoura is a journalist, not a criminal. It is unreasonable and unjust that such a sanction intended to punish her supposed support for the former regime has left her in such dire straits. We are sending her this money as a humanitarian gesture.”
Reporters Without Borders added: “The treatment suffered by this journalist should alert public opinion and the government. The way she has been marginalized is incompatible with the need for justice and national reconciliation. It is time to lift the order freezing assets for those who were unjustly targeted.”
Why is police intelligence holding opposition media executive?
*Reporters Without Borders calls on the interior ministry to immediately account for media executive Ousmane Sy Savané’s arrest yesterday by the Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DST), a police intelligence agency. Savané is director general of Cyclone, a company that publishes the opposition dailies Le Temps and LG Info.
“If the DST, an interior ministry offshoot, is holding Savané then it should acknowledge this and should publicly say what he is accused of. Was he arrested for a common crime or was he arrested for a press offence? We call on the authorities to release this journalist, who is the second media executive to be arrested by the DST in less than two months, following Le Patriote managing editor Charles Sanga at the start of February.”
Savané was arrested at around 1 p.m. yesterday at Cyclone’s offices in the Abidjan neighbourhood of Riviera Deux by police officers who removed computer equipment belonging to the company.
GOVERNEMENT ARMED MILITIA GROUPS BURNED DOWN OPPOSITION NEWSPAPERS HEADQUARTERS
The group's headquarters editing the Ivorian opposition newspaper the Times , was attacked by supporters of president Allassane Ouatara in the night from Saturday to Sunday in Abidjan.
"At about midnight, the group's headquarters Cyclone (which publishes The Times and two other opposition newspapers), was attacked by a group of men in civilian clothes, who beat the guard," AFP was told. The men are believed to be president Allassane Ouattara supporters
A grid was forced, a room on the ground floor set on fire, and the attackers tried unsuccessfully to set fire to two other offices. Photos were also scattered on the ground.
Computer equipment was also stolen, said Mr. Gbané ( director of edition Cyclone).
"Freedom of press should be protected, security should be for everyone, "he pleaded.
"We will never be silent," he said, announcing that Times,
virulent opponent of the regime of President Alassane Ouattara, will come out next Tuesday, after a suspension of twenty titles decided by the government of president Allassane Ouattara's regulatory authority following a disputed writing.
Earlier saturday morning, a main opposition headquarters was attacked by governement armed militia groups, injuring three opposition youth leaders and burning down part of the opposition headquarters.
"At about midnight, the group's headquarters Cyclone (which publishes The Times and two other opposition newspapers), was attacked by a group of men in civilian clothes, who beat the guard," AFP was told. The men are believed to be president Allassane Ouattara supporters
A grid was forced, a room on the ground floor set on fire, and the attackers tried unsuccessfully to set fire to two other offices. Photos were also scattered on the ground.
Computer equipment was also stolen, said Mr. Gbané ( director of edition Cyclone).
"Freedom of press should be protected, security should be for everyone, "he pleaded.
"We will never be silent," he said, announcing that Times,
virulent opponent of the regime of President Alassane Ouattara, will come out next Tuesday, after a suspension of twenty titles decided by the government of president Allassane Ouattara's regulatory authority following a disputed writing.
Earlier saturday morning, a main opposition headquarters was attacked by governement armed militia groups, injuring three opposition youth leaders and burning down part of the opposition headquarters.
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