(JED/IFEX) – Journaliste en danger (JED), is expressing deep concern over the attack on the Kinshasa-based private television station “Tropicana TV” by local policemen. According to information gathered by JED, late in the morning on 31 March 2006, about ten gunmen belonging to special police services forcibly entered the “Tropicana TV” offices. Led by captain […]
(JED/IFEX) – Journaliste en danger (JED), is expressing deep concern over the attack on the Kinshasa-based private television station “Tropicana TV” by local policemen. According to information gathered by JED, late in the morning on 31 March 2006, about ten gunmen belonging to special police services forcibly entered the “Tropicana TV” offices. Led by captain Thierry, the gunmen forced open the gates of the station, entered the building and threatened all the staff working therein. Also, they arrested the editor, Diego Mfisia, beat him seriously and placed him under custody for three hours in the Kinshasa “Kin Mazière” police station.
According to the same witnesses, two musicians of the “Makoma orchestra” a religious group based in Europe, were part of the “punishing expedition” against Tropicana TV. The musicians have accused the channel of having broadcast their new album before its official and legal release.
Contacted by JED, the Tropicana TV information director, Kabeya Pindi Pasi, rejected the charges alleging that the CD containing the clips in question were legally given to a chronicler of their channel, Henriètte Kanjinga by one of the Makoma’s producers without any further specific indication prohibiting its broadcasting. Worth noting is that Kanjinga was also taken in for questioning by the same policemen, at the time she brought the CD in question into the station.
No legal official complaint has been filed against Tropicana TV or with the police before the attack on the station.
JED sees this unbalanced and violent reaction from the police against a media outlet as heavy-handed and a distressing signal of the so-called Congolese authorities’ good will to help journalists to do their job as freely and as fairly as possible.
JED urges the Congolese government to provide sufficient guarantees pertaining to the physical safety of journalists and press outlets during the electoral period.
