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Alert

Police raid public radio station in Butembo, interrupting programmes and roughing up two journalists

(JED/IFEX) - Journalist in Danger (JED) condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the raid on the public radio station (RTNC) in Butembo by a group of police officers, thereby interrupting a programme about insecurity in the city.

"Raiding a media studio with weapons is violating the temple of truth. Insecurity is a real problem in many cities in the country. Imposing silence on this issue is not the ideal solution", says JED.

According to information collected by JED, a group of police officers with the mobile intervention group under the command of Wabunga Singa, mayor of the city of Butembo (North Kivu province in eastern DR Congo), raided the local station of the public radio network RTNC on 7 March 2007 at around 9:00 a.m. (local time). As a result of this police action, RTNC programmes were interrupted and two journalists, Lambert Kasereka and Aimé Paluku, were roughed up before they were taken to the mayor's office, where they were instructed not to talk about insecurity in Butembo anymore.

Contacted by phone by JED, a member of the mayor's staff said that RTNC continued to broadcast a civil society communiqué inviting businesses to remain closed on 7 March 2007 to protest insecurity in Butembo, where a teacher was killed by a soldier on 3 March.

Following the incident, RTNC Butembo was not on the air until late that afternoon. A local representative told JED that "programmes would start again in the evening".