François Kiyana was detained by police in Shabunda on orders from the local administration. The radio journalist was accused of being late in reading a press release, written by local authorities, on-air.
Journalist in Danger (JED) acknowledges the release of François Kiyana, a journalist for Radio Communautaire Mutanga. Kiyana’s station is based in Shabunda, 350 Kilometres away from Bukavu, the administrative capital of South Kivu – a province in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Kiyana was released with no conditions on 15 August at 11 am. Congolese police had subjected him to 48 hours of solitary confinement.
Interviewed by JED a few hours after his release, François Kiyana said “I was released after Mr. Daniel Eloko Nsala, Sabunda’s provincial administrator, wrote the local police authority, calling for my liberation,” Kiyana said.
“The day I was arrested, I had a long hearing under the pretense that I had refused to read a press release by the provincial administrator on-air. Despite the fact that I explained that I had indeed read the press release the same day I received it, I spent the night in a jail cell,” Kiyana added.
François Kiyana had been arrested on 14 August 2013 by a group of police officers, on an order from the provincial administrator. The journalist was accused of having been late in reading a press release on-air.
The press release was written by the local authorities, and invited civil society and the local Security Council to a meeting on 14 August.
