SECTOR 2 2.5 Adequate competition legislation/regulation seeks to prevent media concentration and monopolies. Article 11 of the law 2013-877 of 23 December 2013 related to competition, forbids monopolies but does not prohibit accumulation. The panel points out that it is possible to create as many publications as one wishes, drawing attention to the existence of printers that in fact control the newspapers who owe them enormous amounts of money. The group Voodoo, for example, was cited as an advertising agency that also has interests in newspaper publishing. Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 1.2 (2012 = 2.3, 2009 = 1.5) 2.6 Government promotes a diverse media landscape with economically sustainable and independent media outlets. The state has established a fund to support the press. Financial aid to the printed press was increased from 150 million FCFA (USD246,426) previously, to 800 million FCFA (USD1,367,610) in 2016. Funds are distributed annually. However, the high number of beneficiaries makes the amounts received paltry, even though there are conditions that exclude certain press establishments. This aid to the press is managed by the Fonds de Soutien et de Development de la Presse (FSDP). State media are not eligible to received finances from this fund. During its first year of operation, it was concluded that none of the organisations met all the 16 criteria of eligibility. However, in order to allow the sector not to be deprived of this important support, the Council exceptionally authorised support to professional press entities that met the majority of the eligibility criteria. Real viability cannot take place in a context where there is a high rate of nonsales of newspaper copies in the country. One panellist provided the example of the case of a newspaper that only sold 53 of the 5000 copies it had printed 86 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER Côte d’Ivoire 2016