SECTOR 1

loosening. The self-imposed restraint appears to have reached its limits and people
are increasingly ready to share their views. This fresh outburst of free expression
greatly benefited from the anonymity of phone-in radio shows and forums and
chat rooms on the Internet, where one can assume another identity.
However, in everyday life there is a sort of wariness between neighbours.
Discussions on political issues are low key and rarely held openly. In panel
discussions Malagasies display a certain reservation, always trying to avoid
confrontation.
Cultural and traditional factors not related to the crisis also prevent some topics
from being freely debated on air: such as rape, incest or paedophilia. Though the
media unreservedly report on and condemn such acts, these issues are not really
discussed in public.
Media themselves exercise cencorship, particularly where political opinions are
concerned. During phone-in radio programmes, those in charge keep a close
watch on the contributions from callers out of fear. Others bluntly cut off calls
from certain participants deemed too critical and likely to create problems for the
station.
There are also constraints imposed by the editorial line of the respective outlet: it
seems that in some media, ordinary citizens have the right to express their views
as long as they are consistent with those of the organisation. Thus, in contrast
to legitimate reasons for not allowing a view to be aired such as inciting racism
or violence, the limit to freedom of expression is set arbitrarily, subject to the
individual preference of a media outlet.
They were then demanding the departure of the Peace-Keeping Forces and the
Force Licorne (French Forcesin the Ivory Coast) from Ivory Coast.
At the judicial level, the depenalization of press offences does not prevent the
Public Prosecutor from imprisoning journalists, by use of procedural tricks, such as
summoning them at the end of the week and placing them in police custody over the
weekend. On 27 February 2007, the director of publications and a journalist of the
paper Nouveau Réveil, respectively Denis Kah Zion and André Silver Konan, were
summoned to appear before the investigation brigade of the national gendarmerie
and held for questioning for “offence to the Head of State” following an article
published a week earlier. On the same day, journalists of the daily newspaper Inter,
the editor-in-chief Charles d’Almeida and the political correspondent Hyppolite
Oulaï were also taken in for questioning by the gendarmerie regarding an article
implicating the President of the Republic in a case of illegal toxic waste dumping
in Abidjan.
The fact remains that well before the political and military crisis and under the
1991 law, journalists in Ivory Coast were experiencing a more disturbing period,

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AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER MADAGASCAR 2010

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