Republic of Congo

Congolese broadcast journalist Barthelemy Kubanabandu Changamuka was shot eight times and killed just minutes after being on air.

Having spent 3 months in detention, ailing journalist and editor Raymond Malonga was sentenced to a further 3 months on charges of defamation.

Calls grow louder for the release of ailing Congo-Brazzaville journalist Raymond Malonga who has been in prison since February 2021.

Despite being seriously ill, Raymond Malonga continues to be held illegally by authorities in Brazzaville.

Cartoonist and publisher of a satirical magazine, Raymond Malonga, was arrested at a clinic while receiving treatment for malaria and quarantined in a prison section for persons with COVID-19.

Eight youth activists in the Republic of Congo were detained and assaulted after taking part in a march – it’s a relief that charges of “sabotage and violence against state security guards” have been dismissed.

The Republic of Congo’s media regulator has accused the state TV oversight body of exceeding its authority and has recommended that the suspension of TV broadcaster Rocil Otouna be lifted.

A news weekly – “The Manager Horizon” – is being repeatedly threatened with closure by Congo-Brazzaville’s media regulator, the Superior Council for Freedom of Communication, following its coverage of alleged mismanagement at a state agency.

The call for the release of newspaper editor Ghys Fortuné Bemba, who has been arbitrarily detained for 14 months, becomes more critical as his health deteriorates.

The blackout was interpreted as a government manoeuvre designed to keep control of the dissemination of information, especially the elections results.

Before her expulsion, Sadio Kante reported receiving threats in connection with a series of stories she published on the attack of journalist Elie Smith.

An armed robbery at TV journalist Elie Smith’s Brazzaville home in the early hours of 10 September, during which Smith’s sister was raped, is suspected by Smith’s media colleagues of being a government-orchestrated act of reprisal.

Reporters Without Borders is alarmed at the Congolese authorities’ biased treatment of media groups that are critical of the government. On 5 May, the chairman of the Talassa group was informed that its “certificate of declaration” had been withdrawn.

Four newspapers were suspended by the Republic of Congo’s media regulator after they reprinted an article from the pan-African magazine Afrique Education. The article referred to a letter by former defence minister Justin Lekoundzou about President Marien Ngouabi’s 1977 assassination.