Journalism disappearing in DR Congo

KINSHASA: Journalists’ lives are in danger and they are being prevented from reporting freely in areas of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that are controlled by armed M23 rebels, the NGO Reporters Without Borders warned yesterday.
“In territory controlled by the M23, the media are subject to threats, censorship, control of their editorial policies, occupation and sometimes abduction of their personnel,” Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a statement, after conducting interviews with a number of journalists in the North Kivu province.
“Journalism is threatened with extinction in this region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
“M23 intelligence officers come to the office every evening and read all the stories. They are the ones who decide which stories we can broadcast and which ones we have to spike. You cannot refuse without risking your life,” one editor told RSF.
To escape harassment from rebels, “at least 10 journalists, probably more” have fled the region, RSF said, where a number of local radio stations have had to suspend operations or shut down.
Only the UN-sponsored station Radio Okapi, based in Kinshasa, is still able to operate properly.
Journalists are also spied on by the Congolese government, who suspect them of supporting the M23, said RSF, citing the case of one local radio station manager held for the past five weeks in Goma on suspicion of spying for the M23.
The restive east of the huge country is a mineral-rich area that has been consumed by conflict for more than two decades and remains volatile.