FOTP 2013 Full Report

exploded, killing at least 150 people. The media encountered difficulties in fully investigatingthe incident and assessing responsibility in its aftermath, due in part to a lack of transparencyfrom the government about the causes and ramifications of the explosion.Physical attacks against journalists are rare, but reporters often face threats andintimidation. In September 2012, security agents allegedly assaulted a video journalist andbriefly detained a reporter for the private broadcaster MNTV while dispersing a crowd gatheredin front of an office in the National Assembly building. The 2009 death of journalist and activistBruno Jacquet Ossébi, who had reported on corruption in the management of Congo’s oil wealth,remains unsolved.Most Congolese get their news from television and radio. There are 23 television stationsin Congo, of which 15 are privately owned. State-run Télé-Congo generally expresses thegovernment’s views, and a number of private channels are controlled by government officialsand their relatives. However, some of the other private channels have reportedly been morecritical of the government in recent years. Of the country’s 39 radio stations, 35 are privatelyowned. Congo’s first community radio station, Radio Biso na Biso, began operating in 2009,serving predominantly rural communities in the Congo Basin with content in 12 indigenouslanguages. While print media are more independent and critical than broadcast outlets, they areheavily concentrated in Brazzaville and do not reach far into rural parts of the country.The internet and satellite television are unrestricted but not widely used, with only 6percent of the population having access to the internet in 2012. Prospects for increased internetpenetration improved in 2012 with the introduction of broadband in May as part of thesubmarine fiber-optic West Africa Cable System project.Congo, Democratic Republic of (Kinshasa)Status: Not FreeLegal Environment: 26Political Environment: 33Economic Environment: 24Total Score: 83Survey Edition 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012Total Score, Status 81,NF 81,NF 81,NF 81,NF 83,NFPress freedom conditions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remained deplorable in2012, with unrest related to the rebel insurgency in eastern Congo posing continued threats to thegeneral media environment. The 2005 constitution and the country’s laws provide for freedom ofspeech, information, and the press, but these rights are limited in practice by President JosephKabila’s government and various nonstate actors. Criminal defamation and libel laws areregularly used to detain and intimidate journalists and to shut down media outlets. In April, twojournalists with Kisangani News were detained after publishing an article critical of a nationaldeputy. The publisher of the Kinshasa-based newspaper Le Fax was held for three days inNovember for alleging that the minister of youth, sports, and recreation had embezzled funds.Also in November, Dadou Etiom of Nzondo TV and Guy Ngiaba of Télé 50 were jailed for ninedays in the southwestern province of Bandundu after criticizing the president of the provincial131