Journalists in Pretoria protest against closure of Radio Maendeleo

Congolese journalists covering the work of the technical committees of the inter-Congolese dialogue in Pretoria, South Africa, have announced they would refuse to report any news from the talks on Friday in protest against the continuing closure of Radio Maendeleo, based in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) city of Bukavu, imposed by the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) rebel movement, the media freedom NGO Journaliste en danger reported.

In a letter on Thursday addressed to the RCD-Goma delegation in Pretoria, the journalists said they intended to follow this action with national and international media campaigns against "all predators of freedom of the press who are trying to impose a single way of thinking" in the DRC.

They called for "the immediate and unconditional revocation of the arbitrary and totalitarian ban" of Radio Maendeleo by RCD-Goma, noting that this was not the first time RCD-Goma had done such "gagging" of the free press.

Radio Maendeleo is one of the few independent radio stations in eastern DRC, and has been closed down by the RCD-Goma before - from July 1999 to August 2001 - according to Human Rights Watch. This most recent shut-down took place on 9 December 2002, when security agents of RCD-Goma closed the station for an indefinite period and temporarily arrested several staff of the radio.

The official RCD-Goma statement explained the suspension on the basis that Radio Maendeleo is not supposed to broadcast stories with political content. However, Radio Maendeleo staff told Human Rights Watch that the RCD-Goma authorities reacted angrily to a programme by Radio Maendeleo on the introduction of RCD-Goma licence plates for cars, which are recognised by Rwanda but not by the DRC government.