Six Ivory Coast journalists released after three-day detention

Six Ivorian journalists arrested on suspicion of spreading faking news which could incite soldiers to revolt, have been freed.

The journalists were released on bond on Tuesday afternoon after being charged with relaying false information and undermining state’s security.

The journalists were arrested on Sunday and taken to a police camp in Agban after several hours of questioning, a media union said.

Members of Ivory Coast’s journalists association condemned the action by the state to undermine freedom of the press.

“We thought that with all the debates and discussion that there has been in Ivory Coast, all the progress that we have made so that we no longer have to deal with these types of situation, but unfortunately we are have to realise that the old practices of intimidation and humiliation of journalists continues in our country and that’s really terrible,” added Secretary of Ivory Coast’s press association, Guillaume Gbato.

Ivory Coast has been gripped by a series of revolts this year by various factions of the military seeking bonus pay, after the government conceded to the demands of an initial group of mutineers in January.

The immediate issues date back to the aftermath of the civil war in 2011 that ended nearly a decade of geographical division in Ivory Coast and which put President Alassane Ouattara in power.