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Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - From a distance the media landscape in Côte d'Ivoire would present an environment of apparent cordiality and trust among local media personnel covering the politico- military events in the dichotomised West African nation. A number of local and foreign media houses based in the government-controlled south have correspondents covering happenings in the rebel-held north, giving the initial impression to an outsider that all is well within the ranks of the local media. There have been a number of murders, disappearances, molestation, arrests and detentions of foreign and local journalists on both sides of the divide resulting from the military mutiny of September 2002 to unseat the regime of President Laurent Gbagbo. But a clearer and obvious picture of the grave split within the Ivorian media came to the fore when journalists from the north and south converged 29-30 January in Yamoussoukro, some 240km northeast of Abidjan, at a forum to discuss safety during media coverage of a hostile environment. Yamoussoukro, the political capital, had been selected as "a neutral ground," according to an official of the International News Safety Institute (INSI), which convened the forum in collaboration with the Ivorian journalists union (UNJCI) and other regional media support groups. Neutral Yamoussoukro, however, unmasked the real fear and mistrust journalists in the rebel-held north harbour about the government-run south, and, surprisingly, for their colleagues who operate there. Firstly, a delegation of about half a dozen journalists, mainly from the rebel stronghold in the Central Ivorian city of Bouake, had to be 'escorted' by a contingent of 52 Moroccan soldiers serving with the UN peacekeeping force in Côte d'Ivoire. And as though that was not enough, the armed peacekeepers were posted at the entrances to the conference hall, and followed participants outdoors during field exercises to provide "protection" for the journalists from the north. The presence of the armed peacekeepers, who mounted a tent in front of Yamoussoukro's Hotel President, was no doubt a spectacle that left many pondering what a group of journalists could be discussing to require armed guards. A storm in the teacup developed when the delegation from the north staged a walkout to protest 'unfriendly and unfair' comment from a colleague of the government-controlled south. But they returned to the forum after persuasion from some participants. Journalists from the north walked in pairs, hardly mixed outside their ranks, ate in a group and were virtually hotel-bound for the duration of their stay, all due to feelings of insecurity. It was more than evident that the northern journalists had not accepted the olive branch UNJCI president Amos Beonaho extended in his opening remarks, as well as the joy he expressed at seeing some colleagues after two years apart. When they staged the protest walkout, Beonaho reminded his guests: "We are not politicians, but simply professional journalists". Compounding the situation, however, was the fact that media persons from the south made no vivid, deliberate effort to court their northern colleagues into allaying their apprehensions. It would seem that long after war-created physical frontiers are dismantled and when peace eventually arrives, this psychological divide might not automatically disappear. Considering the crucial role of the media in reconciling the people and healing the wartime wounds, it would be remiss were the Ivorian media in its current state to be tasked to mend the fences. Peace brokers in the Ivorian conflict and post-conflict specialised organisations must begin to give this serious consideration, for a deep division such as the one in war-scarred Côte d'Ivoire media would certainly be unhelpful in binding a post-war traumatised population. |