(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to State Prosecutor Gérard Ngendabanka, RSF asked that journalist Jean-Claude Kavumbagu be released. “The Net Press director was arrested for an article he did not write and for which he is not responsible. Either the authorities have erred and should immediately release Jean-Claude Kavumbagu, or they are using the article […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to State Prosecutor Gérard Ngendabanka, RSF asked that journalist Jean-Claude Kavumbagu be released. “The Net Press director was arrested for an article he did not write and for which he is not responsible. Either the authorities have erred and should immediately release Jean-Claude Kavumbagu, or they are using the article as a pretext to silence the director of one of the major independent media voices in the country,” stated Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. RSF recalled that the journalist was previously imprisoned for two months in 1999, after having reported on tension within the Frodebu, the main Hutu party, which became part of the transition government established on 1 November 2001 (see IFEX alert of 21 June 1999).
According to information collected by RSF, Kavumbagu, director of the private news agency Net Press, was arrested and taken to the Bujumbura Criminal Investigation Department’s offices on 21 December. He is accused of insulting the state prosecutor in a telegram from the electronic news agency Le Témoin. Yet, Kavumbagu does not work for this media outlet. Le Témoin is an underground agency that distributes information via e-mail. The persons in charge of the agency remain anonymous. No one has been allowed to see Kavumbagu since his arrest.
Four journalists have been arrested and three have been assaulted in Burundi since the beginning of 2001.
