(CPJ/IFEX) – Pomydor Muboyayi Mubanga, editor of the Kinshasa daily newspaper “Le Phare,” has been “invited” to National Information Agency (ANR) headquarters for a meeting on Wednesday, 3 March 1999. CPJ sources report that Muboyayi may face arrest for a series of articles that have recently appeared in “Le Phare” reporting that decisions on currency […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – Pomydor Muboyayi Mubanga, editor of the Kinshasa daily
newspaper “Le Phare,” has been “invited” to National Information Agency
(ANR) headquarters for a meeting on Wednesday, 3 March 1999. CPJ sources
report that Muboyayi may face arrest for a series of articles that have
recently appeared in “Le Phare” reporting that decisions on currency
valuation are now made by President Kabila instead of finance officials,
and for other articles warning officials not to grant a government
positition to a rebel defector.
**For background to previous detention of Pomydor Muboyayi Mubanga, see
IFEX alerts of 26 November and 9 September 1997**
Background Information
On 8 September 1997, Muboyayi was arrested at his home by four armed and
uniformed men. Authorities gave no official explanation for the arrest.
The arrest seemed to be in connection with “Le Phare’s” publication on 5
September of an article that reported on President Laurent Kabila’s
wish to create a new elite or “special division” presidential guard
similar to that of former President Mobutu.
In a letter to Kabila on 15 September, CPJ asked that the government
make public the reasons for Muboyayi’s arrest and called for Muboyayi’s
immediate and unconditional release if his arrest was because of his
work as a journalist.
Muboyayi appeared before an examining judge on 17 September and the
charges against him were made public. He was charged with spreading
false news and inciting ethnic hatred. He faced up to two years in
prison if found guilty on the first charge.
On 19 November, Muboyayi was released.
