(JED/IFEX) – On 23 April 2004, Vicky Kazumba Badia, a journalist and director of news programming at the private television station Canal Kin TV, was dismissed for “withholding information”, following an order given to Canal Kin TV Director-General Placide Ibouanga-Ndinga by the station’s chief executive officer Jean-Pierre Bemba, who is also the Congolese vice-president. According […]
(JED/IFEX) – On 23 April 2004, Vicky Kazumba Badia, a journalist and director of news programming at the private television station Canal Kin TV, was dismissed for “withholding information”, following an order given to Canal Kin TV Director-General Placide Ibouanga-Ndinga by the station’s chief executive officer Jean-Pierre Bemba, who is also the Congolese vice-president.
According to information received by JED and confirmed by Badia, the charges stem from an incident that occurred on 22 April, in which the journalist reportedly withheld video footage of a speech given by Bemba to a group of children in Kinshasa. Badia was also accused of having “unacceptably close ties” with President Joseph Kabila’s ruling Party for Peace, Renewal and Democracy (Parti pour la paix, le renouveau et la démocratie, PPRD), and of allotting a disproportionate amount of broadcast hours to the party at the expense of Bemba’s own Movement for the Liberation of Congo (Mouvement pour la libération du Congo, MLC).
In a 27 April letter addressed to Bemba, Badia attempted to explain the events preceding the alleged offence, saying, “On the night of 22 April, we received [the] footage with the children just as we were in the final editing stages for the nightly news broadcast. Not wanting to put together a rushed piece on such a tight deadline, I decided to leave the footage for the next day.”
In the same letter, the journalist asked for Bemba’s forgiveness, explaining that the consequences of the dismissal on his family would be considerable. Bemba has remained unmoved by the plea.
