(JED/IFEX) – Frédéric Kitengie, the Johannesburg-based sports correspondent for Radio France Internationale (RFI) who was arrested in Kinshasa on Wednesday 5 December 2001, was released on Thursday 13 December in the late afternoon. The journalist’s release is conditional on his not leaving the country until further notice. He must also check-in with the Kinshasa/Gombe High […]
(JED/IFEX) – Frédéric Kitengie, the Johannesburg-based sports correspondent for Radio France Internationale (RFI) who was arrested in Kinshasa on Wednesday 5 December 2001, was released on Thursday 13 December in the late afternoon.
The journalist’s release is conditional on his not leaving the country until further notice. He must also check-in with the Kinshasa/Gombe High Court’s Prosecutor’s Office every Tuesday and Friday.
JED welcomes the release of RFI’s Johannesburg-based correspondent, but condemns the restrictions tied to his release. In JED’s view, barring Kitengie from leaving the country until further notice is a serious obstacle to his right to inform as a journalist. It also denies him every citizen’s right to enter and leave the country at will.
JED asks the government to follow its own logic and allow Kitengie to return to Johannesburg to continue his work as a journalist.
