(JED/IFEX) – A video tape containing a 24 April 2001 interview given by Etienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba, president of the opposition Union for Democracy and Social Progress (Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social, UDPS), to the private television chain RAGA TV, for its programme “À vous la parole”, has been confiscated for about […]
(JED/IFEX) – A video tape containing a 24 April 2001 interview given by Etienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba, president of the opposition Union for Democracy and Social Progress (Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social, UDPS), to the private television chain RAGA TV, for its programme “À vous la parole”, has been confiscated for about a month in the office of the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Kinshasa. This interview, which was to be broadcast on Sunday 29 April, has not been shown to this day.
According to information obtained by JED, this tape is being held by a high level official in the president’s office who has reportedly shown it to government members, including Minister of Communication and the Press Kikaya bin Karubi.
In the interview, Tshisekedi reportedly does not recognise Joseph Kabila as president of the DRC, putting Kabila on the same level as the leaders of rebel movements who occupy part of the Congo.
JED notes that agents of the Congolese National Police (Police nationale congolaise, PNC) and various intelligence services prevented journalists from covering Tshisekedi’s return to the country at the Kinshasa/N’Djili International Airport on Monday 23 April. Some twenty journalists were, in effect, locked in an airport hangar until Tshisekedi’s procession had left the airport (see IFEX alert of 24 April 2001).
For further information, contact D. M’Baya Tshimanga, president, or Mwamba wa ba Mulamba, secretary-general, Journaliste en danger (JED), B.P. 633 Kinshasa 1, Democratic Republic of Congo, tel. +243 99 29 323, +243, 99 29 345, fax: +243 12 21974, e-mail: jedkin@ic.cd, Internet: http://www.congonline.com/Jed
