Democratic Republic of Congo

A Belgian reporter has been abducted by pro-government Mai-Mai rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) reported Thursday. RSF has called on the Mai-Mai militiamen holding Belgian journalist Thomas Scheen, together with his interpreter and his driver, in the Rutshuru region of the eastern province of Nord-Kivu to release them at once. Scheen is a correspondent...

Eddy Abasiko Mango, a journalist with the Kisangani-based station of state-owned Radio Télévision Nationale Congolaise (RTNC), was suspended on May 23 for three months by Bwande Bwanapuwa, the station's provincial manager, for hosting a programme where guests criticised the provincial governor, Journaliste en danger (JED) has reported. In his May 21 political programme called "Loba Toyoka" (Speak...

Radio Television Mwangaza (RTM), a privately-owned station broadcasting in Lubumbashi, capital of Katanga province (southeastern DR Congo), has been the target of a slander campaign organised by Honoré Kazadi Lukonde, alias Ngube Ngube, a reported supporter of Katanga Governor Moise Katumbi Chapwe, Journaliste en danger (JED) has reported. During a May 24 press conference held at the Makutano...

Three men accused of killing Congolese journalist Serge Maheshe in 2007 were convicted and sentenced to death, while two others were acquitted in a retrial that ended Wednesday. The trial failed to establish a clear motive for the crime, according to news reports and local journalists. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed concern that key aspects of the case remain...

A broadcast journalist in the Democratic Republic of the Congo pressed charges Monday against an Angolan diplomat, alleging he was beaten unconscious by the diplomat and his aides on Saturday, according to local journalists. Journalists familiar with their colleague’s station, Radio Télévision Mwangaza, told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that the attack was in reprisal for coverage of...

The editor of a small-circulation fortnightly is being detained for no known reason since March 7 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Nsimba Embete Ponte, editor of L’Interprète, is being held incommunicado in a building used by the National Intelligence Agency (ANR) in Kinshasa. “The security forces have no grounds for acting in this way,” Paris...

The editor of privately-owned twice-weekly newspaper L'interprète was abducted by unidentified armed men near a bus stop in the Kinshasa neighbourhood of Masina on March 7, according to delayed reports received by Journaliste en danger (JED). Editor Nsimba Embete Ponte is being held in a secret location and the official motives for his arrest remain unknown. According to information obtained by...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today called on the authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to release journalist Maurice Kayombo, who has been held for two weeks on charges of “blackmail and disparaging an official,” after the secretary-general of the mining ministry filed a complaint against him. “We condemn this detention, which is being used to intimidate...

(JED/IFEX) - A weekend of media repression in Kinshasa has resulted in at least four journalists being questioned for several hours by the intelligence services, the closing of a private TV station, and the confiscation of a tape recording of an interview with a rebel leader. Stéphane Kitutu O'Leontwa, general manager of CCTV/RALIK (Canal Congo Télévision/Radio Liberté Kinshasa), Thierry Musenepo...