NGO criticises “veiled attack” on Bas-Congo media

Eight radio and television stations in the southwestern province of Bas Congo face a 30 June deadline from the Ministry of Communications and Press to pay a fee of US $5,000 in order to obtain an operating pass required by the ministry, the NGO Journaliste en danger (JED) reported on Wednesday. The organisations already paid an annual fee of US $2,500 to the Ministry of Postal Services, Telephones and Telecommunications for their broadcasting frequency, according to JED, which called the $5,000 demand an “exorbitant charge” which constituted “a veiled attack on press freedom”. Of the eight companies targeted by the measure, five were either community or cooperative stations that delivered local news stories and operated in the semi-rural areas of Bas Congo, with no advertising revenue and little professional equipment. They included: Radio Sango Malamu (RSM), Radio Tele Matadi (RTM), Radio Communautaire Muanda (RCM), Radio Tele Mbanza-Ngungu (RTBC), Tele Bralima (TB), Site Tele Inga (STI), Radio Kintuadi Matadi (RKM) and Radio Tele Ngovado. According to JED, most of the stations had total revenues less than US $5,000. “It is unthinkable that a community radio or television station operating in a remote corner of the country should have to pay the same charges as a commercial radio or television stations based in [the DRC capital] Kinshasa,” it added.