(JED/IFEX) – André Kisangani, a journalist with the daily “La Référence Plus”, has been summoned to appear on 5 June 2001 before the Court of Kinshasa/Pont Kasa-Vubu by the former education minister, Yérodia Abdoulaye Ndombasi. In a summons dated 23 May, the former minister accuses Kisangani and the newspaper “La Référence Plus” of defamation and […]
(JED/IFEX) – André Kisangani, a journalist with the daily “La Référence Plus”, has been summoned to appear on 5 June 2001 before the Court of Kinshasa/Pont Kasa-Vubu by the former education minister, Yérodia Abdoulaye Ndombasi. In a summons dated 23 May, the former minister accuses Kisangani and the newspaper “La Référence Plus” of defamation and asks the court to sentence the journalist to “the strongest penalty provided for by the law” and to impose a fine of US$ 32,000 on his newspaper for damages.
On 3 May, “La Référence Plus” published an article by Kisangani entitled “By publishing the day of the delivery and resumption of a controversial decree, Yérodia smeared and dishonoured at the Education Ministry”. In this article, the journalist accused the minister of having removed a team of advisors from his outgoing cabinet, among which there were fictitious advisors, with “his eye on the severance payments”. In the same article, the journalist wrote that Minister Yérodia “was preparing to deliver 185 public schools to a religious organisation whose only members are tribal brothers.”
This is the second summons from the former education minister since he was dismissed from the government. The first case pits the minister against the bi-weekly “Numérica”.
For further information, contact D. M’Baya Tshimanga, president, or Mwamba wa ba Mulamba, secretary-general, Journaliste en danger (JED), B.P. 633 Kinshasa 1, Democratic Republic of Congo, tel. +243 99 29 323, +243, 99 29 345, fax: +243 12 21974, e-mail: jedkin@ic.cd, Internet: http://www.congonline.com/Jed
