New York, May 23, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed at a spate of attacks on the press in the run-up to the July 30 elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo. On Monday, armed assailants smashed and looted equipment at Kinshasa-based broadcaster Radiotélévision Message de Vie (RTMV), forcing it off the air for…
May 14, 2006 Posted: June 9, 2006 Dupont Ntererwa, Centre Lokole ATTACKED Ntererwa, a journalist with the Centre Lokole radio production studio in Bukavu, eastern DRC, was attacked by four youths in civilian clothes, who threatened him over his reporting on insecurity in the town, the studio said in a press release. The journalist told…
APRIL 24, 2006 Posted: May 1, 2006 Anselme Masua, Radio Okapi ATTACKED Soldiers from the Republican Guard, a military detachment that falls under the president’s authority, attacked Masua, a journalist for Radio Okapi, at a military base in the central city of Kisangani, according to a United Nations spokesman and the local press freedom organization…
New York, April 25, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the arrest on criminal defamation charges of a journalist in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kazadi Kwambi Kasumpata, of the small private weekly Lubilanji Expansion, was arrested after the Protestant University of Congo lodged a complaint with police over an article he wrote…
JULY 10, 2006 Last Alert: June 23, 2006 Kazadi Kwambi Kasumpata, Lubilanji Expansion IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION Kasumpata, a journalist working for the small private weekly Lubilanji Expansion in the capital, Kinshasa, was provisionally released on July 5 after spending more than two months in prison on defamation charges. He was freed on orders from the…
APRIL 18, 2006 Posted: April 21, 2006 Arthur Tshimanga Kaputu, Lubilanji Expansion IMPRISONED Kaputu, director of the small private newspaper Lubilanji Expansion was detained for three days without charge by the public prosecutor in the capital, Kinshasa. According to the Kinshasa-based press freedom organization, Journaliste en Danger (JED), which sent a representative to meet with…
New York, April 11, 2006–The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about newspaper publisher Patrice Booto, who has been in jail in the capital, Kinshasa, since November 2, 2005. Booto recently told a representative of Journaliste en Danger (JED), a Kinshasa-based press freedom organization, that he was suffering from several health problems and had…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by the continued use of criminal statutes to jail Congolese journalists for reporting on allegations of corruption and other violations. Jean Pierre Phambu Lutette, managing director of the small private newspaper La Tolérance, was arrested on Friday on charges of insulting a local government official and “inciting tribal hatred,” according to the local press freedom organization Journaliste en Danger (JED). He has since been transferred to the central prison in the capital, Kinshasa, where he joins publishers Jean-Louis Ngalamulume, in jail since January 27, and Patrice Booto, behind bars since November 2, 2005.
APRIL 18, 2006 Posted: April 25, 2006 Arthur Tshimanga Kaputu, Lubilanji Expansion IMPRISONED Kaputu, director of the small private newspaper Lubilanji Expansion was detained for three days without charge by the public prosecutor in the capital, Kinshasa. According to the Kinshasa-based press freedom organization, Journaliste en Danger (JED), which sent a representative to meet with…
The murder and attempted murder of journalists in 2005 sent a chill through the independent press in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Journalists operated in a tense pre-electoral climate, enduring threats and harassment from government officials and other powerful figures. Rampant corruption and a weak judiciary in a country still bearing the scars of…