Côte d’Ivoire

Côte d’Ivoire is a francophone West African country of roughly 31–32 million people, with Yamoussoukro as its constitutional political capital and Abidjan as the economic capital and seat of government. It is a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union, sharing the CFA franc (XOF) as its currency. The defining political event of the 2025–2026 review period was the presidential election of 25 October 2025, in which incumbent President Alassane Ouattara was re-elected to a fourth term with 89.77% of the vote, on a turnout of about 50%. Two major opposition figures, former president Laurent Gbagbo and PDCI leader and former Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam, were barred from running, and opposition figures denounced the fourth-term bid as unconstitutional. Analysts described the contest as taking place against a wider regional pattern of democratic backsliding, even as Côte d’Ivoire retained a comparatively diverse media and civil-society landscape.

The audiovisual sector is regulated by the Haute Autorité de la Communication Audiovisuelle (HACA), established under the audiovisual-communication law of 27 December 2017, while the print and online press fall under the Autorité Nationale de la Presse (ANP), created in the same 2017 reform package. The 2017 press law protects journalists’ sources, and the penalties for press offences are largely civil; however, insulting the President of the Republic remains a criminal offence, and Reporters Without Borders has warned that the electronic-communications law adopted on 6 June 2024 contains a provision criminalising the disclosure of electronic messages, which could be used against journalists reporting on leaked communications.

The 2025 election cycle was the dominant story for the state-media sector. The state broadcaster RTI faced renewed scrutiny over its coverage of an election from which the most prominent opposition figures were excluded: RSF described RTI as continuing to act as the public-relations arm of the government and president, and the State Media Monitor review found no effective mechanism enforcing sustained editorial balance at the broadcaster despite HACA’s regulatory remit.

State-media leadership turned over significantly in the run-up to the vote. The Council of Ministers removed RTI Director-General Fausséni Dembélé in July 2024 for management “dysfunctions”; Jean Martial Adou, a former chief of staff at the communication ministry, served as interim before being confirmed as DG on 27 December 2024. Dembélé was then appointed Director-General of the Agence Ivoirienne de Presse by decree of 19 December 2024, taking office at the national news agency on 16 January 2025. SNPECI, the state-owned publishing group behind the daily Fraternité Matin, presented a return to provisional profitability for 2025 at a March 2026 presentation, alongside a 2026 investment programme of around XOF 511 million, the first signs of financial recovery after several years of state-subsidy-supported losses.

Three outlets are included in the State Media Monitor dataset for Côte d’Ivoire, spanning a single Captured Public/State-Managed broadcaster and two Independent State-Funded and State-Managed agencies, a mix that distinguishes the Ivorian state-media landscape from the more uniformly state-controlled environments found elsewhere in West Africa.

Radiodiffusion Télévision Ivoirienne (RTI) is the national public broadcaster created in 1962, with two radio stations, four television channels including the regional RTI Bouaké, and the RTI Info online portal. Its board is appointed through state and executive processes; mixed funding combines a licence fee, advertising, state subsidies and partnerships; and the broadcaster is described by RSF as continuing to function as the public-relations arm of the government and president. The CaPu classification, a genuine public-service broadcaster captured in practice, was maintained for 2026.

Société Nouvelle de Presse et d’Édition de Côte d’Ivoire (SNPECI) is classified as Independent State-Funded and State-Managed (ISFM), with caution. The state-owned publishing group, 100% owned by the State, behind the daily Fraternité Matin (founded in 1964 under President Houphouët-Boigny), the magazine Émergence économique and the news site fratmat.info. State ownership, state-appointed governance and a substantial operating subsidy point structurally toward capture, and Ivorian commentators frequently describe Fraternité Matin as a government newspaper; the ISFM classification therefore rests not on the funding or ownership structure but on the SMM review’s editorial findings, which identified no formal directive requiring favourable coverage and no systematic pro-government bias in the reviewed content. The classification is explicitly cautious and structurally vulnerable.

Agence Ivoirienne de Presse (AIP) is categorised as Independent State-Funded and State-Managed (ISFM). The official news agency, established by Law 61-200 of 2 June 1961 and now constituted as a national public administrative establishment under dual ministerial supervision, with a network of seventeen regional bureaux. The agency is predominantly state-funded, a state subsidy of around XOF 622.7 million accounted for some 76% of its 2020 resources, and its Director-General, Fausséni Dembélé, was appointed by decree in December 2024 having previously led RTI. The State Media Monitor review found that the AIP does not operate as a government mouthpiece and that a content review of its output found no systematic evidence it functioned as a propaganda arm, alongside strengthened fact-checking activity during 2025 including on political and security-related misinformation. The ISFM classification is maintained for 2026, with the absence of statutory independence guarantees, the lack of external oversight and a government-appointed leadership identified as standing vulnerabilities.

The combination of one captured public broadcaster and two state-funded outlets that retain editorial autonomy in practice gives the Ivorian state-media sector a more pluralistic profile than its francophone Sahel neighbours under military rule. This pattern is fragile, however, because it rests on observed editorial practice rather than institutional insulation: both SNPECI and AIP remain state-owned and state-funded, and would be exposed to reclassification if their output became systematically aligned with the executive, whether through a tightening of executive control after the 2025 election cycle or through a contraction of the editorial space that comes with deep state-subsidy dependence.

Media profiles