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Alert

Three opposition radio and television stations silenced for 48 hours

(JED/IFEX) – Kinshasa, 29 July 2010 – A radio station and two television stations belonging to Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, a key opponent of President Joseph Kabila, had their signals cut on 26 July 2010, JED sources report.

At about 3:00 a.m. on 26 July, a commando unit of five armed, plainclothes men travelling in a vehicle with tinted windows arrived at a building complex in the Binza Pigeon neighbourhood of Kinshasa that houses the majority of the city's radio and television transmitters. The men proceeded to order the technicians and soldiers guarding the site to cut the signals of the channels belonging to Canal Congo Télévision (CCTV), Canal Kin Télévision (CKTV) and Radio Liberté Kinshasa (RALIK). No equipment belonging to the stations was either damaged or taken, according to the JED sources.

The signals were eventually restored two days later, at about 8:00 p.m. on 28 July. No official reason was given for the action.