'DRC journos safer in 2009'
2009-12-11 13:14
Kinshasa - Attacks on journalists in the Democratic Republic of Congo declined in 2009 compared with the previous year despite the killing in August of a reporter in the east, a rights group announced Thursday.
Journalistes en Danger (Journalists in Danger-JED) said that there were at least "75 cases of attacks on press freedom" in 2009 compared with 110 in 2008, in a report called "Daily Freedom of the Press: Between Fear and Survival".
But the rights group deplored the murder in August of a young journalist in Bukavu, capital of Sud-Kivu province in the strife-torn east of the vast central African country.
Bruno Koko Chirambiza, 24, died late on August 22 after being stabbed "by an unidentified group" as he returned from a wedding, according to his employer at Radio Star, opposition member of parliament Pierre Pay Pay.
Pay Pay said that it was a "premeditated" murder, while JED at the time urged the UN mission in the DR Congo (MONUC) to investigate the killing.
In its report, JED said that the reduction in attacks on journalists was a reflection of their "fear of tackling in a professional manner subjects that cause trouble, such as the war in the east, corruption and embezzlement."
The organisation expressed relief that "no Congolese journalists are currently in prison nor reported missing."
JED accuses the National Intelligence Agency of being the most repressive on media freedoms. The province of Sud-Kivu is held to be "the most dangerous" in the country, with three journalists killed in two years, including two who worked for the UN-sponsored Radio Okapi.