Security agents assaulted Sylvie Ndinga, video journalist for the private broadcaster MNTV, and detained Yvon Le Pape, a reporter for the same station, in Brazzaville, the capital, on September 17, 2012, according to local journalists and news reports.
Several journalists, including Ndinga and Pape, had gathered outside an office in the National Assembly to cover a high-profile property dispute between a government official and an expat businessman, local journalists said. Security agents arrived on the scene and tried to disperse the crowd, the private weekly Le Patriote reported.
One officer grabbed Ndinga’s camera and smashed it against a wall in an attempt to destroy the footage. Ndinga told CPJ that three other men attacked her as she tried to retrieve her camera. She said her shirt was torn in the attack and her camera was confiscated.
MNTV News Director Estelle Bikoumou told CPJ that the officers also detained Le Pape for three hours.