Media silence for the media in Kwango province for three days since this Friday. The decision of the National Union of the Press of Congo, Kwango section, was taken to denounce the pressures which journalists are the target of in this part of the country as an election year begins.
Almost more information in Kwango since Friday: on TV, on the radio, in the written press, but also on social networks… As an intense electoral period begins, Georges Kilunga, of the National Union of the press du Congo, Kwango section, wanted to denounce the pressures that the media are subjected to by certain authorities.
” We know it’s an election year or period, so we thought we had to start now. Because the authorities, when they come, it’s to interfere with our activities. This is how we thought of punishing them, for three days we are not going to broadcast, whatever their press releases, their interventions, it will not be on the air. That way, maybe it will teach them. »
And among the journalists of Kwango, victims of these pressures, there is Emile Yimbu. “ I myself who speak to you, I was the subject of several outlandish arrests, without reason and without cause, on the part of certain authorities of the province of Kwango. In 2020, I was conducting an investigation, I was arrested by the intelligence services. But we also had other cases. Journalists have been beaten quite recently. One of our colleagues was arrested and stripped naked. It’s not normal. »
A movement which according to Georges Kilunga was followed by nearly 88% for the first day, Friday.