Paz Miluta, a reporter with the privately owned, online Kwango Presse news agency, was detained on July 2, 2024, for eight days in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s southwestern Kwango province, following a complaint by a local magistrate.
Three police officers arrested Miluta and detained him in the central prison in the provincial capital, Kenge, after the magistrate filed a complaint for defamation and spreading false rumors over Miluta’s Facebook post alleging that he sexually abused underage girls and had people unfairly arrested, the journalist’s lawyer, Emile Yimbu, told CPJ.
The magistrate declined to comment as the case was ongoing.
In early July, the local branch of the National Union of the Press of the Congo (UNPC) announced a media blackout and held a demonstration to protest Miluta’s detention.
On July 9, Miluta appeared in Kenge’s peace court, which ordered his provisional release on condition that he did not speak to the media about the issue, according to Olivier Makambo, a local journalist who followed the case.
Miluta was freed on July 10, after paying a deposit bail of 600,000 francs (US$261).