Press Freedom Abuses Continue Under New Kabila
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about your government’s continued persecution of independent journalists and news outlets. We first protested your administration’s heavy-handed treatment of our colleagues in an April 10 letter. Since then, conditions for Congolese journalists have only worsened.
Attacks on the Press 2000: Africa Analysis
PRESS COVERAGE OF ARMED CONFLICTS CONTINUED TO STIR THE HOSTILITY of governments and rebel factions alike and claim reporters’ lives, but the prominent role of the press in the often-volatile process of democratization also brought unprecedented challenges to journalists working in Africa. CPJ confirmed that in 2000, five journalists were killed specifically because of their…
Attacks on the Press 2000: Democratic Republic of Congo
PRESS FREEDOM HAS BEEN ONE OF MANY CASUALTIES OF THE CIVIL WAR that began as a rebel insurgency in August 1998 and has continued to destabilize the entire region, with Angola, Zimbabwe, and Namibia supporting President Laurent-Désiré Kabila, and Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi fighting on the side of Congolese rebel forces (although Kabila’s army includes…
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in the DRC New York, September 21, 2000 — Two Kinshasa-based editors accused of high treason and threatened with the death penalty were sentenced to lengthy prison terms last week. On September 12, Emile-Aimé Kakese Vinalu of Le Carrousel and Jean-Pierre Ekanga Mukuna of La Tribune…
Democratic Republic of the Congo: Two editors face death penalty for criticizing Kabila
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed at your government’s ongoing persecution of two Kinshasa weekly newspaper editors: Emile-Aimè Kakekese Vinalu of Le Carrousel, and Jean-Pierre Ekanga Mukuna of La Tribune de la Nation. Both journalists have been charged with high treason and face the death penalty if convicted, according to CPJ sources.
IPF Awards 2000 – Announcement
New York — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) presented its International Press Freedom Awards for the year 2000 to four journalists–from Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malaysia, and Iran–for their courage and independence in reporting the news. These honorees endured jail, had their lives threatened and, in one case, survived a car-bomb attack,…
Democratic Republic of the Congo: Journalist convicted of “insulting the army”
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged by the continued persecution of Freddy Loseke Lisumbu la Yayenga, editor of the Kinshasa-based weekly La Libre Afrique. We condemn Loseke’s recent conviction for “insulting the army,” an absurd charge that is an affront to the most basic standards of press freedom.
Two journalists arrested and detained near Kinshasa
Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in the DRC New York, June 26, 2000 — CPJ calls for the immediate release of a BBC journalist and her Congolese assistant who were arrested yesterday by security agents near the Congolese capital, Kinshasa. Caroline Pare, a London-based BBC television producer, and her assistant, Pierre…
DRC: Journalist faces fifth month in illegal detention
Your Excellency: On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to remind you that the illegal detention of Freddy Loseke Lisumbu la Yayenga, editor of the Kinshasa-based weekly La Libre Afrique, is entering its fifth consecutive month.