Democratic Republic of Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo government has shut down local FM retransmission of the French public radio station Radio France Internationale (RFI) throughout the country since July 26, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) and Journalist in Danger (JED) have reported. JED has confirmed from various sources that RFI’s broadcasts on the FM waveband have been cut since July 26 in Kinshasa (the country...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has written to the DRC communication and media minister Lambert Mendé condemning the government’s decision to suspend local retransmission of the French public radio station Radio France Internationale (RFI) in the northeastern city of Bunia, and voicing concern at the possibility that the measure could be extended to the rest of the country. “We easily understand...

Journaliste en danger (JED) has applauded the February 19 release of Bwamputu Akienzin Zéphyrin, a correspondent for the public broadcaster RTNC in Bandundu province, western Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Zéphyrin had been facing charges of making damaging allegations against a former RTNC director. A Bandundu court declared the charges pending against the journalist unfounded, acquitting...

Bienvenu Yay, an independent journalist and the Mbandaka correspondent for the Kinshasa-based, private television station Congoweb TV, was on February 20 handed down a six-month sentence and ordered to pay US$2,500 in damages for slandering José Makila, deposed governor of Équateur province, according to delayed reports. Mbandaka is located in the northeastern province of Équateur. Yay, according...

Nsimba Embete Ponte, the editor of biweekly L’Interprète was released on January 7 on completing a 10-month prison sentence for “insulting” DRC President Joseph Kabila by referring to rumours about his health in a series of articles, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Arrested on March 7, 2008 in Kinshasa by members of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR), Ponte was held incommunicado...

Safety remains the single greatest concern for media professionals in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), despite the fact that statistically speaking attacks against the press and journalists are down. The decline was more likely attributable to censorship and self-editing on the part of journalists, rather than any improvement to the country's press laws. The findings are from Journalist en

Kinshasa's N'Djili court has handed down 10 and nine-month sentences, respectively, to Nsimba Embete Ponte, editor of the Kinshasa-based, independent bi-weekly Interprète, and his assistant, Davin Tondo Nzovuanga, according to Kinshasa-based Journaliste en Danger (JED). The court's decision of November 27 was made public a week later. The two men were arrested by state security agents in March and...

A journalist working for UN-backed Radio Okapi in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was shot dead on Friday night. Didace Namujimbo is the second Radio Okapi reporter to be killed in the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu in the past 18 months. "Once again a Radio Okapi journalist has been killed in Bukavu. Didace Namujimbo was killed by a shot to the head by unknown assailants on...

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have released five journalists of privately-owned Raga TV, after they were arrested on November 19 and held for 24 hours at an undisclosed location, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “We were all released this evening. We were in trouble over the broadcast of an interview with an opposition figure who made comments seen as offensive...

A Belgian journalist who was held captive for three days by Mai-Mai militiamen in Congo has been free, the German newspaper he works for said on Friday. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said on its website that the journalist, Thomas Scheen, and two Congolese co-workers who were seized in east Congo earlier this week were now under the care of United Nations peacekeepers and doing well. Some details...