On July 31, 2025, Prince Lulamba, a reporter with the privately owned, community Radio Nsenda Muana, was arrested in the central Congolese city of Mwene-Ditu by police and the city’s mayor, along with program director Ally Clovis Kaseba and reporter Albin Mukadi.
On July 29, mayor Gérard Tshibanda Kabue signed an order, reviewed by CPJ, indefinitely barring Radio Nsenda Muana from broadcasting for allegedly inciting tribal hatred and encouraging tax noncompliance.
On July 28, the station broadcast a phone-in program where listeners criticized Tshibanda’s management, but no one incited tribal hatred or promoted tax evasion, Radio Nsenda Muana board president Shico Shimatu Nsenda told CPJ.
The journalists were detained at a local police station, but on August 2 Kaseba suffered severe hypertension and was transported to a local hospital, according to Shimatu and a video shared with CPJ of the journalist’s transfer.
On August 4, the journalists were released on the order of provincial governor Iron-Van Kalombo, but the broadcaster remained shuttered, Shimatu told CPJ at the time.
Tshibanda told CPJ in early August that he had for eight years warned Radio Nsenda Muana journalists against allegedly inciting tribal hatred and “unfounded” criticism of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s ruling Union for Democracy and Social Progress.
“Some missteps can be tolerated and others reprimanded,” he said. “This radio goes too far. It will remain closed.”