Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009africa: ethiopiaas defamation, according to Kanyimbo. No legislative progress was reported,and some criminal defamation cases proceeded in the courts. In July, a judge inthe northwestern city of Mbandaka sentenced freelance journalist Bienvenu Yayto a six-month suspended term and ordered him to pay US$500 in damages inconnection with a story critical of the former provincial governor, according toJED. The National Assembly did pass a bill in October establishing a regulatoryagency, the High Council for Broadcasting, that many journalists hope will beindependent. Kanyimbo called a provision that the council’s nine members haveprofessional media credentials or experience a rare victory for the press.Kanyimbo and other female journalists have taken notable leadership roles inthe Congolese press and have fostered training in the coverage of women’s issues.In South Kivu, which has been devastated by systematic rape, the Association ofWomen Journalists trained aspiring female journalists and produced radio programsspotlighting women’s issues. Such work drew reprisals. Reporters DelphieNamuto and Caddy Adzuba of Radio Okapi and Jolly Kamuntu of Radio Maendeleo,all members of the Association of Women Journalists, were threatened inan anonymous text message in September. The message, sent to Namuto, said:“You have a bad habit of interfering in what does not concern you to show thatyou are untouchable. Now, some of you will die so that you shut up. We’ve justbeen authorized to start with [Adzuba], then Kamuntu, then Namuto: a bulletto the head.”CPJ wrote to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who had visitedthe eastern city of Goma in August, to urge her to “impress upon the authoritiesin the Democratic Republic of Congo the importance of the safety of humanrights defenders, including journalists reporting on the war and its impact onvulnerable sections of the population, particularly women.” In October, hundredsof journalists staged marches in nine provinces to urge authorities to intervene inongoing threats and violence against journalists. “We wanted to impress on themthat the press represents a barometer of democracy,” Kanyimbo told CPJ.The dangers were greatest in the eastern city of Bukavu, where a reporter wasmurdered in unclear circumstances. Several assailants stabbed Bruno Koko Chirambiza,24, a presenter with Radio Star, in August as he was walking home froma wedding with a friend. Chirambiza was found with his personal belongingsintact, including a mobile phone and 5,600 Congolese francs (US$7), accordingto Radio Star Program Director Jimmy Bianga. CPJ was investigating the killingto determine whether it was related to Chirambiza’s work. No arrests werereported, although local journalists said a mob had lynched one person suspectedin the attack.The Chirambiza slaying was the third involving a Bukavu journalist in as manyyears. Didace Namujimbo, a reporter for Radio Okapi, was shot at close range nearhis home late one evening in November 2008. The journalist’s brother, Déo Namujimbo,told CPJ that the victim’s cell phone was missing but cash had been left inhis wallet. Suspects were identified and detained within days, but little progress hasbeen reported in the courts. The motive remained unclear, and CPJ was investigatingto determine whether the killing was related to Namujimbo’s workSerge Maheshe, an editor and reporter for Radio Okapi, was gunned downin Bukavu in June 2007 as he was preparing to board a U.N. vehicle with twofriends, according to news reports and CPJ interviews. The gunmen shot Mahesheseveral times in the chest and legs; the journalist’s companions were uninjured.CPJ has determined the killing was in reprisal for Maheshe’s work. Threemen were ultimately convicted in the murder, but the proceedings were widelycriticized for serious violations of the defendants’ basic rights. Journalists, observers,and lawyers were also threatened during the proceedings, according to localand international media.The absence of effective law enforcement allowed a culture of threats andviolence to continue. In April, Déo Namujimbo received e-mail death threats thatnoted his involvement in a report by Reporters Without Borders on the murdersof his brother and Maheshe, according to news reports. Namujimbo, who wasalso a leader of the Congolese National Press Union in South Kivu, won politicalasylum in France and hastily moved his family from the region. “Bukavu, thesame city where I found shelter in July 2004 when the men of former warlordGen. Laurent Nkunda were looking for me over a story about rebel atrocities,was becoming synonymous with deadly insecurity for journalists,” Namujimbowrote on the CPJ Blog.ETHIOPIAAhead of national elections scheduled for may 2010, theruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) furthercurtailed the limited freedom of the country’s small number of independentnewspapers. The government enacted harsh legislation that criminalized coverageof vaguely defined “terrorist” activities, and used administrative restrictions,criminal prosecutions, and imprisonments to induce self-censorship. In all, fourreporters and editors were being held when CPJ conducted its annual census ofimprisoned journalists on December 1.Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was expected to seek another five-year termin the 2010 vote, the first general election since the disputed 2005 vote, whichwas marred by a bloody crackdown on political dissent and Ethiopia’s once-vibrantAmharic-language press. With control of more than two-thirds of the seats2 2 2 3