Congolese journalist jailed for one year for insulting governor

Cape Town, March 14, 2019 – The authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo should not oppose the appeal of journalist Steeve Mwanyo Iwewe of a one-year prison sentence for having insulted a provincial governor, announced today the Committee for the Protection of Journalists.

Iwewe, a journalist with the privately-owned Radio Television Sarah, was sentenced on 1 March in Mbandaka Criminal Court for insulting Ecuador's governor, Bobo Boloko Bolumbu, according to the journalist's lawyer, Sovereign Pontiff. Ikolombe, who spoke at CPJ. Iwewe was sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay $ 200 million in damages to Bolumbu, his lawyer said. Iwewe is currently in Mbandaka Central Prison, where he has been detained since his arrest on 27 February.

Ikolombe told CPJ that he would appeal the verdict tomorrow in the court of appeal of the Mbandaka Peace Court, alleging that the initial trial had been poorly conducted.

Iwewe is the first journalist CPJ has learned to have been jailed in the country since President Felix Tshisekedi Tshilombo took office Jan. 24.

"The Democratic Republic of Congo may have a new president, but it seems that the ambition to censor journalists that the authorities deem undesirable remains unchanged," said Angela Quintal, coordinator of CPJ's Africa program in New York. . "Governor Bobo Boloko Bolumbu should not challenge Steeve Mwanyo Iwewe's appeal, so his sentence may be overturned and he may be released."

Iwewe was arrested and beaten by the governor 's security agents on Feb. 27 in Mbandaka, while he was covering the arrival of Bolumbu at a protest against a tax hike. State, according to his lawyer. Security officials told Iwewe to stop filming and taking pictures, but the journalist refused, Ikolombe told CPJ.

"You came here to do your job, let me also do mine freely," Iwewe told the police when they told him to stop reporting, according to the local freedom group. the press, Journalist in Danger. The governor then ordered Iwewe's arrest for insulting him, Ikolombe told CPJ.

CPJ's repeated calls and WhatsApp messages to Bolumbu spokesperson Rossi Bolekwa went unanswered. CPJ also called Nsaebeinga Treasure, director of Sarah television radio, but did not get an answer.

The lawyer said that Nsaebeinga and Yanick Mbombo, another journalist from the radio station, were hiding out of fear of being arrested as a result of Iwewe 's detention.