Congolese reporters participating in the training in Bukavu. Photo: Robert Shaw/IMS

Reporters in the Congo are trapped in the line of fire, say Congolese journalists who took part in a safety workshop organised by IMS and INSI in the Congo

In order to provide rapid-response and much needed support to the media community in the war-torn North-Eastern region of the Congo, IMS and the International News Safety Institute (INSI) organized two safety trainings for 50 journalists in Bukavu, North-East Congo between 18 and 22 December 2008.

The training course, which was organised in close cooperation with the «Réseau des Radios et Télévisions de l'Est du Congo» (RATECO) in Bukavu, focused primarily on first aid and basic risk awareness honing in on issues such as personal safety, ballistic awareness, vehicle checkpoints and mine awareness.

Media serve as platforms for warlords

During the training, IMS spoke to Reuters reporter in Kivu, Kenny Katombe Butunka about his perspective on the working conditions for journalists in the North-eastern region:

- The media serve as a platform for the warlords who use the rivalry between different ethnic groups in our country for their own profit. In this situation, censorship is rife and pressure points ricochet off the batons of the multi-pronged powers from both official and extra-official sides, he said.

Kenny explained that following the resumption of fighting in August 2008 after the breakdown of a January peace agreement signed by all the Congolese armed groups, the media has come under heavy attack with almost no independent reporting possible.

Adding to this, Albert Tulinabo, editor of Le Peuple Souverain newspaper in Goma, who also took part in the training, went on to explain the real challenge facing media in Congo:

- Media don't know how to work on issues of highly sensitive conflict reporting and there is a need to create a stronger role for the media in the run-up to the local elections in 2009 in order to avoid public isolation from the democratic process. In our North-Eastern province it is essential that both within our country and across the borders with Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda a window of dialogue is opened between local leaders and key media players in an effort to open channels towards conflict resolution, said Tulinabo.

Journalists brutally killed

Tulianbo recalls the brutal killing of Didace Namujimbo on 21 November in Bukavu, a reporter who was working for the United Nations-sponsored broadcasting network Radio Okapi. Namujimbo was the second Radio Okapi journalist assassinated in the border town of Bukavu following the killing of his colleage Serge Maheshe in June 2007.

Four other stations in this war-afflicted zone have preemptively shut down, fearing looting, according several journalists who took part in the training, and the overall consensus was that the security threat for journalists in the provinces would continue to mount as reporters remain trapped in the line of fire between high levels of corruption in all sectors of the current President Joseph Kabila's administration and a hardline approach to media freedom by local authorities.

Participants Honore Essoh, Bonane Bugeso and John Mumbere Kanyunyu testing their First Aid skills. Photo: Robert Shaw/IMS

The Congo - tormented by years of conflict

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has suffered major setbacks in the past years, due to an ever-increasing climate of violence and insecurity. The DRC face many dangers mainly from the lower-level conflicts since numerous years and even if fighting has officially stopped between Rwanda, Burundi and DRC, many rebel groups are still operating in several regions including the entire Eastern Provinces of Ituri and Kivu. 

The Congolese media operate against this backdrop of political power struggles, violent land struggles and violent unrest. Silenced more and more in this deepening humanitarian crisis, media workers face arrest, threats and violence, with reporters who try to expose corruption within the local authorities and military powers permanently at risk.
 
Bukavu itself, a town of half million people, was invaded several times by local militias over the last couple of years. Its central place in the region allowed IMS and INSI to gather participants from the Ituri and Kivu region as well as the neighbouring countries of Rwanda and Burundi to jointly participate in the training sessions.