Police officers summoned and detained Willy-Albert Kande, a reporter for national broadcaster Radiotélévision Nationale Congolaise (RTNC), and his colleague, Marcelin Mwananteba, at a station in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Officers questioned them about their reporting on sanitation conditions at the city’s Martyrs Stadium, before releasing Mwananteba the same day and transferring Kande to the office of the National Cyberdefense Council (CNC), an intelligence service of the presidency, according to media reports and an RTNC journalist with knowledge of the case, who spoke with CPJ on the condition of anonymity for security reasons.
Local media reported that stadium manager Dadou Ethambe had lodged a complaint against RTNC after the state-run outlet’s June 8, 2025, broadcast, which showed the complex littered with trash. In the broadcast, Kande raised concerns about the stadium’s conditions ahead of hosting a 2026 World Cup qualifying match.
According to media reports and the same RTNC journalist, Kande was accused of denigrating the stadium in a way that promoted Kamalondo Stadium in the southeastern city of Lubumbashi. That stadium is owned by Tout Puissant Mazembe, the local football team managed by opposition politician Moïse Katumbi.
On June 11, authorities arrested RTNC camera operator Don Kubutana and reporter Laurent Ngala, who had filmed the conditions at the stadium, and took them to the CNC offices, according to the same RTNC journalist and a post on X by a local reporter. Kande, Ngala, and Kubutana were released later that day, following the intervention of the minister of sports and leisure, Didier Budimbu Ntubuanga, and the chief of staff for the minister of communication and media, Nicolas Liyanza.
CPJ’s calls to Budimbu and Ethambe to request comment in June did not receive a response. A WhatsApp message to Ethambe also went unanswered.