New York, June 9, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by the arrest of a radio journalist in the Democratic Republic of Congo who criticized the police on air. Pierre-Sosthène Kambidi, who works for the local private radio station Concorde FM, and the Kinshasa-based press freedom organization Journaliste en Danger (JED), was arrested…
New York, May 31, 2006—Congolese authorities are refusing to accredit Radio France Internationale’s Ghislaine Dupont to cover July elections, despite the fact that she obtained a visa and has been in the country for five weeks, according to RFI Africa Director Henri Perilhou. Information Minister Henri Mova Sakanyi has pressured RFI to withdraw Dupont, who…
New York, May 30, 2006—A Kinshasa court today sentenced journalist Patrice Booto to six months in prison and a $500 fine for “offending the head of state,” and “insulting the government,” according to local press freedom group Journaliste en Danger (JED). The court ruled that Booto, who has already spent more than six months in…
New York, May 26, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is issuing an urgent call for the acquittal of jailed journalist Patrice Booto, who awaits a verdict, expected Monday, on charges of publishing false information, offending the head of state, and “insulting the government.” The state prosecutor has asked a Kinshasa judge for a three-year jail…
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…