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Radio presenter sentenced to three months in prison for defaming provincial police chief

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has reiterated its call for the release of journalist Pierre-Sosthène Kambidi of privately-owned radio station Concorde FM after he was summarily and unfairly tried by a court in Tshikapa in the central province of Kasaï Occidental on 10 June 2006 and sentenced to three months in prison for defaming a local police chief.

"The reports we have received about Kambidi's arrest and trial are astounding," the press freedom organisation said. "This case shows how urgent a need there is to build a judicial system capable of resisting pressure from those in positions of power. At the same time, we reiterate our call for a rapid overhaul of the defamation law. Kambidi must be freed and an administrative investigation must be conducted into the way he was put in prison."

Kambidi was arrested on 8 June on the orders of Pierre Kidogo, the commander of a police rapid intervention brigade based in Tshikapa, and has been held in the city's main prison ever since. Judge Aimé Mupele Zangisi presided over the court that gave him the three-month sentence and a fine of 150,000 Congolese francs (265 euros) on 10 June.

According to Journalist in Danger (JED), the Reporters Without Borders partner organisation in Democratic Republic of Congo, the trial was very unfair. JED quoted Kambidi's lawyer as saying the prosecution witnesses contradicted themselves and said the defamatory comments were make in a Tshiluba-language news programme, whereas the programme Kambidi presents is in French. Tshiluba is one of Democratic Republic of Congo's four national languages.