Congo-Kinshasa: Private Television Network Raided By Militia Members Linked to Provincial Governor

Journaliste En Danger (Kinshasa)

21 June 2011

press release

JED would like to express its deep concern following the recent incidents that occurred on 15 June 2011 in Lubumbashi, which resulted in the raiding of a private television network and an assault on its journalists, leaving two severely injured.

According to JED sources, Radio Télévision Lubumbashi JUA, a private network owned by Jean-Claude Muyamo, a former minister and member of the political movement affiliated with President Joseph Kabila, was raided and partly set ablaze. Those responsible for the incident are members of a militia commonly known as “100%”, which recruits among fans of TP Mazembe’s football team, whose president is the provincial governor, Moïse Katumbi.

This attack occurred following the broadcasting on 14 June of an interview with Muyambo in which he vehemently criticised Katumbi’s management credentials.

Local journalist Lucien Kahozi, who participated in the production of the interview, told JED that the interview was taken without the permission of the producer and given to the governor. Following the broadcasting of the interview, Kahozi has found refuge with the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO) following a series of threats which accused him of colluding against the governor.

Also contacted by JED, Muyambo suggested the attack was orchestrated by Governor Moïse Katumbi and lasted close to two hours without any police intervention.

JED denounces the violence which beckons a climate of insecurity for journalists only a few months prior to the upcoming election.

JED demands that authorities and political representatives, at both the national and local level, cease using their respective media outlets to further their leadership conflicts.

JED would also like to call upon all journalists working in Katanga to show restraint by avoiding actions that further exacerbate political and communitarian tensions in a province that has known a great deal of conflict based on ethnic divisions and political quarrels.

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