(JED/IFEX) – On 15 March 2004, cameraman Robert Kadima Baruani, assistant cameraman Milla Dipenga and reporter Eric Ambago were harassed and detained briefly by a group of about 10 police officers at the Wagenia building in Kinshasa/Gombe. In addition, the journalists’ equipment was confiscated. The three journalists work for Radiotélévision Kin-Malebo (RTKM), which broadcasts from […]
(JED/IFEX) – On 15 March 2004, cameraman Robert Kadima Baruani, assistant cameraman Milla Dipenga and reporter Eric Ambago were harassed and detained briefly by a group of about 10 police officers at the Wagenia building in Kinshasa/Gombe. In addition, the journalists’ equipment was confiscated. The three journalists work for Radiotélévision Kin-Malebo (RTKM), which broadcasts from Kinshasa.
According to JED’s sources, the RTKM crew had gone to the building to cover an illegal expropriation based on counterfeit parcellary documents. Upon their arrival at the scene, the journalists noticed that officers from the national police were acting at the request of a woman named Valérie Ahuada Te Litho and José Endundo Bononge, the Congolese minister of public works’ wife.
The journalists were detained for close to three hours and were subsequently released. Upon their release, their equipment was returned.
JED notes that there has been an increase in the number of land disputes and expropriations in the capital, and these incidents are often considered newsworthy by the local media. The organisation also notes, however, that every time journalists have tried to report on these increasingly common situations, certain people have tried to prevent them from freely going about their work. Given this state of affairs, JED urges the interior minister and chief inspector of police to launch an investigation to identify and punish the police officers responsible for this unacceptable behaviour, as well as their superiors.
