(JED/IFEX) – Anselme Masua, 42 years, a journalist with Radio Okapi – a joint project by the United Nations Mission in Congo and the Swiss Hirondelle Foundation – was beaten on the morning of 24 April 2006 in Kisangani, the capital of Oriental province in northeastern DR Congo, by Republican Guard military officers. According to […]
(JED/IFEX) – Anselme Masua, 42 years, a journalist with Radio Okapi – a joint project by the United Nations Mission in Congo and the Swiss Hirondelle Foundation – was beaten on the morning of 24 April 2006 in Kisangani, the capital of Oriental province in northeastern DR Congo, by Republican Guard military officers.
According to information received by JED, Masua went to a camp where he clearly identified his intention to verify information he had on the Republican Guard’s efforts to mix various groups of troops before integrating them into the new national Congolese army. Upon arriving at the camp, a captain responding to the first name “Jules”, who was commanding the Republican Guard detachment, began insulting Masua before ordering his men to beat him.
JED is incensed by the increase in these actions against journalists in DR Congo. It is most shocking that that no serious investigation has been launched to seek out those responsible and to sanction them, therefore they benefit from complete impunity. Beyond this act, a long list of attacks against the media has transpired. In the last three weeks, JED has documented three instances wherein radio and television antennas were sabotaged, notably those belonging to politicians from Butembo in North-Kivu, from Lodja in Kasaï Oriental and from Kisanga in Katanga. In this last instance, a maintenance technician, Kayilu Mutombo, was found stabbed on 29 March at a relay station on the same day that a private television station’s antennae were sabotaged.
JED considers that at this rate, as the electoral campaigning is just beginning, there is a risk that media outlets may even be bombed. JED implores the government to react by taking clear measures in order to assure the security of journalists as well as media infrastructure of all types.
