Cote d'Ivoire: Opposition press resumes publishing
ABIDJAN: Notre Voie, a daily that supports former President Laurent Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), was on sale yesterday, 24 May 2011, in Abidjan for the first time since Gbagbo's ouster on 11 April. The newspaper's premises had been ransacked and occupied by soldiers loyal to the new president, Alassane Ouattara, which prevented its journalists from working.
Officers from the Press Support and Development Fund (FSDP) last week visited the headquarters of pro-Gbagbo newspapers that were attacked and ransacked during the prolonged post-election crisis. Other pro-Gbagbo newspapers such as Le Temps, Le Nouveau Courrier d'Abidjan, Le Quotidien d'Abidjan and Prestige Mag are expected to resume publishing in the next few days.
After President Ouattara took control, Reporters Without Borders voiced concern that the pro-Gbagbo press would be suppressed at the expensive of media diversity. Although Notre Voie was guilty of excesses in the past, Reporters Without Borders regards its reappearance as an encouraging sign of respect for pluralism.
