(JED/IFEX) – Further to an order issued by the chief inspector and head of the Office of General Information and Special Services (Direction des renseignements généraux et services spéciaux, DRGS), Raüs Chalwe Ngwashi, four DRGS agents have been delegated to audit the private television station Canal Kin TV. The audit is scheduled to take place […]
(JED/IFEX) – Further to an order issued by the chief inspector and head of the Office of General Information and Special Services (Direction des renseignements généraux et services spéciaux, DRGS), Raüs Chalwe Ngwashi, four DRGS agents have been delegated to audit the private television station Canal Kin TV. The audit is scheduled to take place from 19 November to 12 December 2002. The order specifies that the agents are expected to “examine Canal Kin TV’s tax deductions and returns relating to the cultural support fund, from 1997 to the present, and carry out all other related investigations.”
The agents arrived at the Canal Kin TV offices the day after the private station’s broadcasts were suspended. The DRGS had stopped the station’s broadcasts from 10:00 p.m. (local time) on 20 November to 6:30 p.m. on 21 November and sealed the station’s Kinshasa/Ngaliema studio. Officers from the National Police continue to be present in the studio. Minister of Justice Massudi Ngele reportedly ordered the reopening of the studio.
Background Information
A few minutes prior to the interruption of programming, Canal Kin TV was broadcasting footage from an event marking the fourth anniversary of the creation of the Mouvement de libération du Congo (MLC, an armed rebel group) in Gbadolite. During the event, rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba commented on the recent United Nations report about the pillaging of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) natural resources.
Canal Kin TV is owned by the Bemba family. One of the sons, Jean-Pierre Bemba, leads the MLC, which controls the DRC’s north-eastern region, with Ugandan support. Since the signing of the Sun City agreement, MLC members travel to Kinshasa on a regular basis, and Canal Kin TV frequently broadcasts footage of MLC activities in the territories under its control.
