(JED/IFEX) – The following is an abridged JED press release: Three independent newspapers suspended for three months: JED denounces media regulatory body’s “totalitarian” abuse of power and lack of independence Kinshasa, 20 September 2005 In a 20 September 2005 letter to Haute Autorité des Médias (HAM, media regulatory body) President Modeste Mutinga, Journaliste en Danger […]
(JED/IFEX) – The following is an abridged JED press release:
Three independent newspapers suspended for three months: JED denounces media regulatory body’s “totalitarian” abuse of power and lack of independence
Kinshasa, 20 September 2005
In a 20 September 2005 letter to Haute Autorité des Médias (HAM, media regulatory body) President Modeste Mutinga, Journaliste en Danger (JED), expressed “shock and serious concern” over the 19 September decision to suspend the three Kinshasa-based newspapers Pool Malebo, Le Journal and L’Ouragan for a period of three months. JED believes this decision reveals a “totalitarian abuse of power which has come to characterise the HAM in recent months and a glaring lack of independence on the part of the organisation’s head.”
In its 19 September decision, the HAM accused Le Journal and its supplement, Pool Malebo, of publishing, in their 16-19 September and 15-20 September 2005 issues, respectively, an article on the US$30 million gift reportedly made to the Republic of Tanzania’s education sector by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The information is said to have come from sources “well acquainted with Episcopal Conference insiders.”
According to the HAM, “this article contains unconfirmed statements, harmful allegations made with a complete disregard for any form of rigour and with a view to sensationalise . . . violating Articles 2, 3, 6, 11 and 13 of the DRC’s Journalist’s Code of Conduct.” Basing its accusations solely on a 16 September reply published by the Congolese Episcopal Conference (Conférence épiscopale nationale du Congo, CENCO), in which the CENCO denied having ever received a letter from the Tanzanian Episcopal Conference regarding the US$30 million gift, the HAM concluded that the letter never existed and therefore considered the article to have been written with an intent to harm rather than inform.
In the case of L’Ouragan, the HAM has accused the paper of reprinting, in its 16 September edition, a 15 March 2003 account by Jeune Afrique L’Intelligent newspaper of violent acts carried out by Mouvement pour la Liberation du Congo (MLC) rebels back in 2002. The HAM does not consider these acts to be directly linked to MLC leader Jean-Pierre Bemba [currently a vice president of the DRC] and therefore believes that the reprinting of this article “violates the objectives of peace and reconciliation assigned to the Transition government by the Global and Inclusive Accord.”
JED would like to remind the HAM that international norms, such as the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa, adopted by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, as well as various clauses in the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights, state that “freedom of expression includes the right to seek, receive and impart all types of opinions, ideas and information. It shall not be limited to such categories as correct opinions, wholesome ideas, or truthful information.”
D. M’Baya Tshimanga,
President
Tshivis Tshivuadi,
Secretary-general
