Côte d'Ivoire Media Sustainability Index (MSI)
March 16, 2012
About the MSI
IREX designed the MSI to measure the strength and viability of any country's media sector. The MSI considers all the factors that contribute to a media system—the quality of journalism, effectiveness of management, the legal environment supporting freedom of the press, and more—to arrive at scores on a scale ranging between 0 and 4. These scores represent the strength of the media sector components and can be analyzed over time to chart progress (or regression) within a country. Additionally, countries or regions may be compared to one another. IREX currently conducts the MSI in 80 countries, and began studying Africa in 2006.
MSI Overview | Africa | Asia | Europe & Eurasia | Middle East & North Africa
Download Complete Côte d'Ivoire Chapter (PDF): 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006/7| 2006/7 (français)
MSI Côte D'Ivoire-2010 Introduction
Overall Country Score: 2.08
AAn upturn in economic activity marked 2010 in Côte d’Ivoire, as did its impacts on the media landscape. The prospect of a general election helped create favorable conditions for economic growth as well. Elections had been postponed repeatedly after the Ouagadougou Political Agreement of March 4, 2007, but finally were scheduled for October 30, 2010, in the midst of a relatively peaceful social and political climate.
Election fever colored most of the year, leading up to the first round of presidential elections. Political players campaigned nonstop to win over voters. After waiting for several years for elections, many Ivoirians expressed skepticism over whether elections would actually take place. On November 28, the elections did go forward—but the uncertain results sank the country into a political crisis. The country’s Independent Election Commission declared the internationally-backed Alassane Ouattara the victor; however, its Constitutional Council annulled the results and claimed that Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent, won. As of the end of 2010, Gbagbo continued to ignore regional and international protest, clinging to power and refusing to step aside.
Also, the lead-up to the elections prompted authorities to crack down on the media, with attacks on journalists and bans on pro-opposition publications during the elections. Additionally, the authorities censored a number of foreign radio stations and television channels, including RFI, BBC, and France 24, accusing them of bias and cutting their signals amid the post-election turmoil.
Still, the media managed to take remarkable advantage of the election year, with clear gains in freedom of expression—even beyond the freedom already guaranteed in the Basic Law and supporting legislation and regulations. Many newspapers and publications kept up the heat on election coverage, and in the final quarter, new dailies cropped up specifically to cover the elections. The elections spurred efforts to train journalists and media professionals to provide high-quality coverage of the elections. Professional media organizations, in partnership with the Press Support and Development Fund (FSDP), organized a series of capacity-building workshops for media professionals and published various guides for journalists.
Two media regulators, the National Press Council (CNP) and the National Broadcast Media Council (CNCA), become involved also in the media coverage of the elections. They promoted rules and procedures designed to help ensure that all candidates had fair access to the public service media.
Even with such clear signs of improvement relative to 2009 in media practice, the panelists were unanimous in recognizing the ongoing weaknesses that the media community needs to address—especially professional standards of journalism and the business management side of media companies.
