JUNE 14-28, 2005
Posted: June 30, 2005
Laurent Lukengu Badimanye, KHRT
Léon Mwamba, La Prospérité
Ali Tshitoko, Radio Sumbula No. 1
Casimir Ntwite, Radio Concorde
Jean Delor Kabamba, Radio Lumière
Esaï Musungayi, Radio Universelle
Sosthène Kambidi, Journaliste en Danger
HARASSED
On June 14 and 15, Laurent Lukengu Badimanye, a reporter with private radio station KHRT in Tshikapa, was summoned to the national security agency and asked the names of soldiers he interviewed about discontent in the military, according to the local press freedom group Journaliste en Danger (JED). The journalist refused to reveal his sources.
Léon Mwamba, the Tshikapa correspondent for private Kinshasa-based daily La Prospérité, was detained June 17 and held for 24 hours by security agents, who questioned him about a JED statement reprinted in La Prospérité on June 21. The JED statement reported the security agents’ interrogation of Lukengu. Mwamba told JED that agents searched him, stripped him, and threatened his life.
Ali Tshitoko, a journalist with community radio station Radio Sumbula No. 1, was arrested June 28 by security agents and held for more than four hours for reporting on the harassment of journalists, according to JED.
Casimir Ntwite, director of Radio Concorde in Tshikapa went into hiding on June 26 after the governor of Kasaï Occidental province, André Claudel Lubaya, called publicly for his arrest, according to local news reports. The statement came after a broadcast on June 25, during which Ntwite interviewed politicians from the presidential and opposition parties on the postponement of elections, according to Freddy Mulongo, president of the Congolese community radio association ARCO.
At a June 27 meeting, the Tshikapa Security Council named Ntwite, Jean Delor Kabamba of Radio Lumière, Esaï Musungayi of Radio Universelle and JED correspondent Sosthène Kambidi as “agents of unrest,” according to JED. The Security Council includes the governor and members of civilian and military security forces.