(JED/IFEX) – Publisher Delly Bonsange and publication director Raymond Kabala of the Kinshasa-based newspaper “Alerte-Plus” were sentenced to six and 12 months in prison, respectively, and fined a total of US$300,000 in damages, according to a verdict made public on 6 September 2002 by the Kinshasa/N’djili Tribunal. The two journalists were convicted, respectively, with making […]
(JED/IFEX) – Publisher Delly Bonsange and publication director Raymond Kabala of the Kinshasa-based newspaper “Alerte-Plus” were sentenced to six and 12 months in prison, respectively, and fined a total of US$300,000 in damages, according to a verdict made public on 6 September 2002 by the Kinshasa/N’djili Tribunal. The two journalists were convicted, respectively, with making “written falsehoods” and “harmful accusations” after publishing information about Security and Public Order Minister Mwenze Kongolo’s health.
The tribunal also found Kongolo’s request for compensation justified, and fined Kabala $US200,000 and Bonsange $US100,000 in damages for harm suffered by the plaintiff.
JED believes that the ruling is contradictory and unjust, with no other goal than to definitively silence the two journalists and make their publication disappear. It is incomprehensible that the same verdict that recognises the lack of any violation of the press laws by the two journalists also sentences Kabala for “harmful accusations”, says JED. “Harmful accusations” is a press offence according to Article 74 of Press Law No. 96-002 of 22 June 1996, which defines a press offence as any infraction committed through the press.
In addition, the enormity of the damages, set at $US300,000, in place of the $US50,000 sought by the plaintiff, is out of proportion with the harm allegedly suffered by the plaintiff. Moreover, this clearly indicates the intention of forever silencing the newspaper “Alerte Plus,” which is incapable of paying off such a sum.
JED asks the President of the Republic, in his role as Supreme Magistrate, to take political action to release the two journalists, as a sign of his commitment to human rights and greater press freedom, and thereby restore the tarnished image of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which today ranks among the worst countries in the world for its treatment of journalists.
