(JED/IFEX) – In a 5 June 2002 letter to Jean-René Mputu Biduaya, news director of the private broadcaster RAGA, the station’s director-general Versi Zaïre informed the journalist of his “appointment to the position of communications advisor to the director-general.” That same day, the director-general announced the “dissolution of the news office” and its downgrading to […]
(JED/IFEX) – In a 5 June 2002 letter to Jean-René Mputu Biduaya, news director of the private broadcaster RAGA, the station’s director-general Versi Zaïre informed the journalist of his “appointment to the position of communications advisor to the director-general.” That same day, the director-general announced the “dissolution of the news office” and its downgrading to the level of department.
The journalist’s “promotion” is in fact a means of punishing him. It follows a series of attacks on RAGA and its director-general, in the form of pressure, blackmail and other acts of harassment.
According to information collected by JED, certain individuals within the ruling elite have become increasingly disturbed by the tone of RAGA’s reporting. The station has been the target of repeated threats. As an example, several sources told JED that in late April, a few days after the completion of inter-Congolese peace talks in Sun City, South Africa, Presidential Press Secretary Lambert Kaboyi reportedly phoned RAGA administrative director Serge Ahuka and issued the following threat: “I am going to tell the president about you and we will make an example of RAGA by punishing the station. All of Kinshasa’s media outlets described the Sun City meetings as a success, except for RAGA, which called them a failure….”
Other sources have confirmed that RAGA’s director-general, who is a British national, is often the target of threats and blackmail by the security services. They have reportedly asked him to fire Mputu, whom they accuse of being an “opposition journalist.” The director-general was warned that if he refused to fire the journalist, “RAGA might be closed and the station’s director-general could be expelled from the DRC.” The same sources confirm that Communications and Press Minister Kikaya bin Karubi is constantly urging RAGA’s director-general to keep Mputu off the air, because of his “comments against the government.”
In a 3 June letter, the journalist claimed that the director-general told him that, “it is best to obey the government in order to facilitate RAGA’s expansion to the country’s interior provinces. Otherwise, all may be lost, since we strive to present the news objectively.”
Moreover, in an 8 May letter to RAGA management, the station’s journalists complained of the strict censorship to which they are subjected in their news reporting. According to station guidelines, they must strictly follow the government line. The journalists complained that they have to “dance the government dance in their news coverage and are barred from broadcasting any criticisms of the government.”
Previously, in April 2001, when Etienne Tshisekedi, leader of the UDPS opposition party, returned to Kinshasa, Mputu had featured an interview with the opposition leader on his radio programme. The interview was never broadcast and the tape of the interview is reportedly with the president’s cabinet to this day. The journalist’s programme was cancelled outright a short time later.
In an 8 June protest letter to Communications and Press Minister bin Karubi, JED urged him to put an end to the various security services’ threats, blackmail and harassment against RAGA, and interference with the station’s (and other private and public stations’) news coverage. The organisation also urged the minister to end the threat of expulsion against RAGA’s director-general and to allow all RAGA journalists, Mputu in particular, to carry out their professional duties without obstruction.
