Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is calling for the immediate release of a technician from a radio station in the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who was arrested by the police and closed the media at the same time.
The closure of Radio Liberté Buta, located in Bas-Uélé province in northern DRC, and the arrest of one of its technicians following a raid by the police on November 28th, has all air of a settling of accounts. While the radio broadcast a broadcast in which intervened the vice-president of the provincial assembly, the police arrested its director of antenna, Junior Supa , for not having found on the spot the person in charge politician who was criticizing the current management of the province.
Broadcast material was seized and the radio placed under seal the next day. According to RSF’s partner journalist in danger ( JED ), an arrest warrant has also been issued against the director of radio Jules Kasikila . Fearing for his safety, he now lives in hiding.
The radio is a station close to the Movement of Liberation of Congo (MLC) of Jean-Pierre Bemba, one of the leaders of the opposition.
“It is completely unacceptable that this media and its technician bear the brunt of local political rivalries,” said Arnaud Froger, head of RSF’s Africa office. After more than ten days of detention, and while he has committed no offense, there is no reason for this media associate to spend another minute behind bars. It’s not a bargaining chip! We demand his immediate release, the return of radio equipment and the resumption of his activities “.
The Minister of Communication and Media of the Bas-Uélé Province, Floribert Inga, told the telephone by RSF, “regret the situation of this technician”, acknowledging that the broadcast of this interview “was not his responsibility “, But denouncing the comments made on this media which, according to him, often incite to the” disturbances with the public order “and the” uprising against the institutions “.
On 12 November, during an interview between RSF, JED and Felix Tshisekedi, on the sidelines of the Paris Peace Forum, the Congolese President supported the idea of a moratorium on the arrests of journalists in the exercise of their duties. functions until the 1996 Press Law is revised.
The latter provides that the authors of proceedings against a journalist to engage may initiate proceedings including measures involving deprivation of liberty. Despite the arrival of the new authorities nearly a year ago, arbitrary arrests of journalists are still frequent in the DRC. Pursued for defamation , the Evening News editor , Achiko Ngaya, remained in prison for five days in late October.
During a joint mission that took place from 14 to 18 October in Kinshasa, eight deputies and senators met in Kinshasa agreed to be part of a “group of parliamentarians friends of the freedom of the press” constituted by JED and RSF to defend the urgency of a reform of the repressive and obsolete legal framework that currently governs the exercise of journalism in the country.
The DRC currently ranks 154 out of 180 in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index .
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