RSF Italia

Reporters sans frontières esprime le proprie condoglianze e la propria collera per l’omicidio avvenuto ieri 5 aprile 2010 verso sera di Patient Chebeya Bankome, detto Montigomo. Il cameraman è stato ucciso da proiettili sotto gli occhi della moglie, mentre rientrava a casa, nella città di Beni (provincia del Nord-Kivu).

Il 5 aprile verso le 22, Montigomo, cameraman indipendente che lavorava per diverse televisioni tra cui quella pubblica Radio-Televison Nationale Congolaise (RTNC), è stato spogliato della sua borsa contenente le videocassette, del cellulare e del denaro prima di essere ammazzato con quattro colpi sparati a bruciapelo.

Due sospetti, un sottotenente e un capo sergente maggiore, entrambi appartenenti alla base logistica delle forze armate della Repubblica del Congo (FARDC), sono stati arrestati subito dopo il crimine. “Non si tratta di un’imboscata ma di un’azione ben congegnata. Si tratta di un episodio molto triste che condanniamo con forza”, ha dichiarato a Reporters sans frontières il sindaco di Beni, Mufunza Bayengo.

Montigomo, 35 anni, aveva ripreso la maggior parte dei conflitti armati nell’est del paese, soprattutto nella provincia di Ituri.

Archiviato in: Congo | Commenti disabilitati

Reporters Without Borders condemns police harassment and violence against journalists during and after the 12 June elections in which, as expected, President Denis Sassou N’Guesso won another term. A French journalist told the press freedom organisation: “We were just going about our work when anti-riot police attacked us and seized our equipment.”

“The use of such violent methods is liable to sow doubt about the regularity of these elections,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Journalists have been physically attacked, threatened and harassed at the whim of police and soldiers. We urge the authorities to punish all the abuse of authority towards media personnel that took place during the polls.”

Visiting journalists Arnaud Zatman and Marlène Rabaud of the French satellite TV station France 24 and BBC World Servicecorrespondent Thomas Fessy were physically attacked by police while covering an opposition demonstration held in Brazzaville when the results were announced on 15 July. Their equipment was confiscated and they were forced to leave the scene of the protest.

Reached by telephone, Fessy said he was shocked by the way the police behaved. “They grabbed me around the waist and pulled me by the hair to make me let go of my tape recorder, which was immediately taken by a plain-clothes policemen,” he said. “Another policeman snatched my bag.”

On returning to their hotel, the three journalists realised they were being kept under surveillance. As a result, they moved out and went to a location that offered more security.

A few hours after the polls opened on 12 July, a dozen security agents led by Col. Thomas Bakala Mayinda of the Congolese intelligence agency arrived at the Hotel Saphir and asked to see visiting Radio France Internationale reporter Catherine Ninin, claiming they had an interview with her. The hotel refused to let them in.

An hour later, Ninin received a threatening phone call from a presidential aide while two additional groups of security agents went to the hotel and remained outside all night.

Archiviato in: Congo | Commenti disabilitati

Reporters Without Borders and Journalist in Danger (JED) today published a report on their investigation into Franco-Congolese journalist Bruno Jacquet Ossébi’s mysterious death in a military hospital in Brazzaville on 2 February, 12 days after he was injured in a fire at his home that killed his girlfriend and her two children.
The report, which is being released just a few days before a presidential election in Republic of Congo, tries to address some of the questions surrounding Ossébi’s death, which is still a complete mystery. Did he die a natural death as a result of injuries sustained in the fire, or was he murdered? Was the fire started by accident or was it arson?
The failure to carry out an autopsy on Ossébi’s body or a forensic investigation at the scene of the fire may mean that the truth will never be known. Senior police officials have minimised the importance of the case and have even questioned that Ossébi, who wrote for the online opposition newspaper Mwinda, was a journalist.
Three days before the fire, Ossébi wrote an article accusing a French bank of reaching an illegal financing agreement with the Société Nationale de Pétrole du Congo. An anti-corruption activist, Ossébi was also involved in the complaint which Transparency International brought before a French court accusing President Denis Sassou-Nguesso and two other African leaders of illegally amassing property in France.
The report is based on the findings of a visit that Reporters Without Borders and Journalist in Danger, its partner organisation in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, made to Brazzaville from 20 to 27 May.
The Reporters Without Borders and Journalist in Danger representatives obtained unpublished documentary evidence including amateur video of the destruction of Ossébi’s house just 14 hours after the deadly fire.
The team also met more than 80 people including relatives of the victims, Ossébi’s friends and neighbours, journalists, members of a commission that is supposed to be investigating the fire, senior police and intelligence officials, diplomats and a member of the government. It also spoke by telephone from Paris with a dozen leading French and Congolese figures.
Noting the absence of a proper investigation, Reporters Without Borders and Journalist in Danger urge the commission that was appointed to conduct enquiries to do so in a thorough manner, without ruling out any hypothesis, and then to publish its findings as soon as possible.
As Ossébi had dual French and Congolese citizenship, they also urge the Congolese government to seek the help of the French police and judicial authorities in this case and invite the French government to open a parallel investigation in France.
The two organisations finally call on the victor of this weekend’s presidential election, in which Sassou-Nguesso is running for another term, to guarantee that journalists will be free to work without being exposed to threats, intimidation or violence.

Download the full report in French:

Archiviato in: Congo | Commenti disabilitati