Journalist released after detention

A journalist, Bonsange Ifonge Feu d’Or, was released on Monday after being held for a month, the media freedom watchdog Journalist en danger (JED) reported on Wednesday. He was arrested on 12 November and was later accused of “threatening the internal security of the state”, it said. The reporter had published, in mid-November in the newspaper ‘L’Alerte Plus’, an article quoting opposition politician Etienne Tshisekedi as saying that “Kabila will fall on 15 December 2000”, it said. On 11 November, the same journalist had published an article headlined “Mbandaka is burning” in the newspaper ‘L’Alarme’, the report added. Mbandaka is the capital of Equateur Province, northwestern DRC, and a strategic target for rebels of the Mouvement de liberation du congo (MLC) fighting the government of President Laurent-Desire Kabila.

Instead of being the “prime witness” in the Congolese war, the media were almost entirely absent, JED stated in its year 2000 annual report. When the press, or individual journalists, did dare to speak up, they were charged with being treasonous by the authorities, it added. At least 42 journalists have been detained for both long and short periods this year, of which at least 14 had alleged mistreatment or torture during their incarceration, the NGO stated.