(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF open letter to Congolese President Joseph Kabila: Democratic Republic of Congo OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT JOSEPH KABILA RSF asks for Frédéric Kitengie’s release “Reporters sans frontières, an international organisation working towards the defence of press freedom, urges you to consult with the relevant authorities to make plans for […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF open letter to Congolese President Joseph Kabila:
Democratic Republic of Congo
OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT JOSEPH KABILA
RSF asks for Frédéric Kitengie’s release
“Reporters sans frontières, an international organisation working towards the defence of press freedom, urges you to consult with the relevant authorities to make plans for the release of sports journalist Frédéric Kitengie, Radio France Internationale (RFI) correspondent in Johannesburg.
According to our information, on Monday 10 December 2001, Frédéric Kitengie was transferred to Kinshasa Central Prison, but he has yet to be advised of his trial date. He was arrested in Kinshasa on 5 December by National Intelligence Agency (ANR) agents. Frédéric Kitengie was interrogated about an interview he did with Moïse Katumbi, president of the Congolese football team, who is also the brother of Katebe Katoto, a declared candidate for the presidency of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It seems that the ANR agents specifically questioned him about his ties to Katebe Katoto. On 8 December, Frédéric Kitengie was referred to the Kinshasa High Court’s Prosecutor’s Office. There, he was accused of being involved in an affair surrounding poor financial management when he was the Radio-télévision nationale congolaise (RTNC) news director. In 1998, deceased president Laurent-Désiré Kabila gave 600,000 American dollars to former information minister Raphaël Ganda towards the purchase of equipment for the public channel. The journalist had accompanied the minister and his technical advisor, Ngoie Kasula, on a mission to Europe for this purpose. Yet neither Raphaël Ganda nor Ngoie Kasula have been troubled.
It is Reporters sans frontières’ belief that Frédéric Kitengie has been imprisoned for having exercised his professional duties, and that he should never have been incarcerated. The organisation recalls that in January 2000, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression Abid Hussain stated that imprisonment as punishment for the peaceful expression of an opinion is a “serious human rights violation.”
Reporters sans frontières is all the more shocked by this detention when one considers that the government decided yesterday, 10 December, to celebrate the 53rd anniversary of the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”. We remind you that you have repeatedly stressed your commitment to the respect of basic freedoms before the international community on several occasions. In your 26 January 2001 inauguration speech, you reflected on the need to reinforce respect for the rule of law, consolidate democracy and guarantee human rights. You reaffirmed your attachment to human rights on the occasion of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights’ 57th session. Yet, in its report on the Democratic Republic of Congo’s press freedom situation, made public on 10 December, the organisation Journaliste en danger (JED) notes that twenty-five journalists have been imprisoned since you took office one year ago.
Though Reporters sans frontières welcomes the 6 November 2001 release of Freddy Loseke Lisumbu, publication director of the newspaper La Libre Afrique, the organisation remains extremely concerned about the arrest of Frédéric Kitengie, who did nothing more than exercise his journalistic activities. We ask you to give a clear signal that you will respect your commitments by ordering his immediate release.”
