(JED/IFEX) – On 5 January 2004, a Kinshasa/Gombe court sentenced nine union members from the state broadcaster Congolese National Radio-television (RTNC, Radiotélévision nationale congolaise) to 12 months in prison with no parole. The court also ordered the journalists and other employees to pay US$2,500 each in damages and interest for “defamation” and “slanderous denunciations” against […]
(JED/IFEX) – On 5 January 2004, a Kinshasa/Gombe court sentenced nine union members from the state broadcaster Congolese National Radio-television (RTNC, Radiotélévision nationale congolaise) to 12 months in prison with no parole. The court also ordered the journalists and other employees to pay US$2,500 each in damages and interest for “defamation” and “slanderous denunciations” against former communications and press minister Kikaya bin Karubi.
In late February 2003, RTNC journalists and other employees gathered at one of the broadcaster’s regular general meetings had called for the resignation of Kikaya, who was communications and press minister at the time. They also demanded the reinstatement of the RTNC’s suspended director, Luboya Mvidie. Shortly after these events, cameraman John Ngomba was suspended for filming and airing images of angry RTNC employees at the same meeting.
Following the meeting, nine RTNC union representatives wrote to President Joseph Kabila denouncing the embezzlement by Kikaya’s ministry of “two transmitters from an equipment shipment purchased by the [state and] the embezzlement of funds that the RTNC had collected in rent.” They also demanded the minister’s resignation. The union representatives copied their letter to all senior authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
On 20 March, the former minister’s lawyer, Gustave Booloko, filed a complaint with the Kinshasa/Gombe High Court Prosecutor’s Office on behalf of his client, accusing the nine RTNC journalists and employees of “defamation”. The judicial authorities subsequently organised a manhunt for the targeted RTNC employees.
The RTNC employees were the subject of threats and intimidation. Their trial was proceeding on schedule until judges called a strike in October, at which point hearings were suspended. The judges sought better working conditions and salary increases that would guarantee their independence. In a statement published in DRC newspapers on 7 January 2004, the judges’ union announced its decision to end the strike on 5 January, in order “to allow the government and Parliament to negotiate with the bench in a calm fashion.”
JED notes that the Kinshasa/Gombe court delivered its verdict in the case involving former minister Kikaya and the nine RTNC employees on 5 January. The defendants were informed of the court’s decision via newspaper reports. Two of the sentenced RTNC employees told JED they had yet to receive official notification of the court decision. “Much like yourselves, we learned of our sentence of 12 months in prison with no parole and a US$2,500 fine in this morning’s papers,” Richard Kalala Tshitenge, one of the convicted employees, told JED.
The RTNC journalists and employees include Mvidie, Tshitenge, Shango Onokoko, Soki Muanda, Gusonega, Batudianga, Nkanza, Mantuala and Basilua. They were not in court when the verdict was delivered and as of yet have not been detained.
