(JED/IFEX) – JED is expressing deep concerns and consternation following the attack on a Lubumbashi-based private television cameraman by armed men. Lubumbashi, the main city of the Katanga Province, is located in the South-East of the DR Congo .The press freedom organization is once more urging the government to guarantee media professionals’ safety, at a […]
(JED/IFEX) – JED is expressing deep concerns and consternation following the attack on a Lubumbashi-based private television cameraman by armed men. Lubumbashi, the main city of the Katanga Province, is located in the South-East of the DR Congo .The press freedom organization is once more urging the government to guarantee media professionals’ safety, at a time when the Congo is getting closer to general elections. JED recalls that this is the second time a journalist has been similarly attacked for simply doing his job. It is worth noting that on 28 May 2005, Jean Ngandu, a local UN radio station journalist escaped a murder attempt, on his way back home from work. No thorough investigations have been carried out so far to shed light on this grave case of death threat, despite the varied requests made by JED.
According to the information gathered by JED, on Saturday 8 April 2006, around 4:00 a.m. (local time) in the Kapemba area, the Lubumbashi-based radio television “Mosaique” cameraman, Michel Olela was threatened to death by three armed men. The latter forcibly broke into his house and took away his camera, video recorder as well as the video tape containing pictures of a demonstration organized on Friday 7 April by Joseph Mukungubila. The latter is a prophet of an independent church and candidate for presidency in the forth-coming general elections.
According to the cameraman, at around 7:00 p.m. he received a call from an unknown person who urgently wanted to know whether or not he had finished mounting the demonstration tape. Believing that the person was one of Mukungubila’s supporters, the cameraman answered that he was working on it at home and that the person could come over to take it back.
At around 4:00 a.m., three armed men broke into his house and urged him to give them the video tape, containing the pictures of the demonstration. He tried in vain to help them understand that he had not finished mounting it, but the armed men decided to take away all his working materials, threatening to shoot him dead if he ventured to call for rescue.
