Freedom of the Press 2008 - Congo, Democratic Republic of (Kinshasa)

Status: Not Free
Legal Environment: 25 (of 30)
Political Environment: 32 (of 40)
Economic Environment: 24 (of 30)
Total Score: 81 (of 100)
(Lower scores = freer)

The law provides for freedom of speech and of the press, but these rights are limited in practice by President Joseph Kabila's government and various non-state actors, including an insurgent movement led by the Rwanda-backed commander Laurent Nkunda. Officials used an array of prohibitive licensing regulations, criminal libel laws, and legal provisions allowing "preventive detention" without due process to restrict free speech and suppress political criticism. At least three local journalists were convicted on criminal defamation charges in 2007 for articles addressing public sector corruption, including editor Rigobert Kwakala Kash of the private weekly newspaper Le Moniteur, who was sentenced in January to 11 months in prison for allegedly libeling the transitional governor of Bas-Congo, but was released after serving 35 days. Two other convicted journalists went into hiding for fear of arrest. In October, Information Minister Toussaint Tshilombo banned 22 local private television stations and 16 radio stations for alleged noncompliance with national media laws; most were allowed to resume broadcasting by year's end. Media outlets also remained subject to regulation by the High Authority on Media (HAM), a public agency created under the 2002 peace accord that formally ended the civil war within the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Some HAM decisions have appeared politically motivated, such as the May closure of the private broadcaster Radio Television Debout Kasai for allegedly defaming the local governor.

Multiparty presidential elections were held in 2006 for the first time since independence from Belgium in 1960. Kabila, who had led the country's transitional government since 2002, won in an October runoff against his main rival, former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba. Subsequent violent clashes between government soldiers and fighters loyal to Bemba led to reprisals against media outlets linked to Bemba and journalists who had covered the violence; Bemba went into exile in April and was charged in absentia with high treason. In March, two television stations and one radio station owned by Bemba were forced to close following a raid by government security forces. Local journalists were vulnerable to violent assault, harassment, and arbitrary imprisonment; during the year, two journalists were killed, ten served time in jail, and as many as 54 were questioned by security forces, according to Reporters Without Borders. In June, Serge Maheshe Kasole, a journalist with the internationally funded Radio Okapi network, was shot dead in the eastern city of Bukavu. Two soldiers and two of Maheshe's friends were convicted of murder and sentenced to death despite a complete lack of evidence against them, according to the local press freedom organization Journaliste en Danger (JED); all four were still in jail and awaiting appeal at year's end. In August, freelance photojournalist Patrick Kikuku Wilungula was killed by gunmen in the eastern city of Goma. While military tribunals convicted several individuals in 2007 in connection with the 2005 murder of investigative journalist Franck Ngyke Kangundu and his wife and the 2006 murder of journalist Louis Bapuwa Mwamba, JED criticized the official investigations and reported that these cases remained far from resolved. JED staff also received death threats during the year, forcing Secretary-General Tshivis Tshivuadi and President Donat M'baya Tshimanga to go into hiding temporarily during August.

The DRC boasts hundreds of private newspapers, radio stations, and television stations. While not always objective, the private media are often highly critical of the government. As illiteracy rates are high and few newspapers circulate outside of urban centers, the majority of the population relies on radio broadcasts for news. The state operates two radio stations as well as a television station and an official press agency. Journalists in all major media outlets are usually poorly paid and lack sufficient training, leaving them vulnerable to bribery and political manipulation. Together with the Swiss-funded Fondation Hirondelle, the United Nations mission in the DRC (MONUC) operates an independent countrywide radio network, Radio Okapi, which has set new standards for reporting and media objectivity in a volatile political scene. There are no reports that the government restricts internet usage or monitors email, although access was limited to less than one percent of the population, mainly in urban centers.

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