(JED/IFEX) – According to information broadcast on the public station RTNC (Congolese National Radio-television, Radiotélévision nationale congolaise), Minister of Communications Dominique Sakombi Inongo has renamed the private stations Canal Kin and RTKM (Radiotélévision Kin-Malebo). Both stations were recently nationalised. Canal Kin has been renamed RTNC 3. The television station is owned by the Bemba Saolona […]
(JED/IFEX) – According to information broadcast on the public station RTNC (Congolese National Radio-television, Radiotélévision nationale congolaise), Minister of Communications Dominique Sakombi Inongo has renamed the private stations Canal Kin and RTKM (Radiotélévision Kin-Malebo). Both stations were recently nationalised. Canal Kin has been renamed RTNC 3. The television station is owned by the Bemba Saolona family. The father was formerly a minister in the Kabila government; the son leads the rebel movement Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC). RTKM, a radio and television station owned by a former information minister under Mobutu, was renamed RTNC 4.
To date, the Congolese state has complete control of four radio and television stations. Besides the dozen radio and television stations belonging to various religious groups which focus on evangelical programming, Raga, Radio Réveil FM, Radio Elikya and Antenne A are the only remaining stations yet to fall under government control, though they are increasingly saturated by advertising and political propaganda messages referred to as “patriotic messages”.
Minister Sakombi’s measures have not posed a problem for Canal Kin, which only broadcasts films and cultural or religious programming. However, RTKM journalists and other employees continue to reject what they refer to as a “takeover by force” against their station.
On 31 October 2000, RTKM started broadcasting anew, but with a new technicians’ team brought in from the public station. The Ministry of Communications issued a press release inviting journalists and other personnel from “RTNC 4” to a meeting with Minister Sakombi on Thursday 2 November.
