Tuver Wundi began receiving threats after participating in a Goma radio station's cultural programme.
(JED/IFEX) – Kinshasa, 5 March 2012 – In the past few days, Tuver Wundi, a journalist with broadcaster Radio Télévision Nationale Congolaise (RTNC) and also Goma-based correspondent for Journaliste en danger (JED), has been receiving death threats.
JED has learned that Tuver Wundi received a telephone death threat on 1 March 2012. “We almost got you a few times but this time you will die,” his caller told him in Swahili.
Wundi began receiving threatening calls after he participated in a local radio station’s cultural programme. The journalist was on the programme to discuss a beauty pageant he is organising in Goma in the coming days.
Wundi told JED that his phone rang twice during the programme but he didn’t take the calls. After the programme ended, the same person called the journalist a third time, threatening to kill him. “I’ve asked the police to guarantee my safety and I’m in the process of hiring a private security firm. This is not the first time I’ve received threats of this nature,” Wundi said.
JED notes that Wundi was held up at his home in April 2009. After tying up his family members, four armed men in civilian clothes threatened to kill him. In addition, on 20 January 2012, around 9:00 p.m., his home was again attacked by armed men in civilian clothes who came looking for the journalist. Wundi was traveling outside the city at the time.
(Please note this is an abridged translation.)
