DRC: Journalist jailed for a week without charge

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To: IFEX Autolist (other news of interest)
From: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), [email protected]

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Journalist jailed for a week without charge

New York, May 27, 2004 - Lucien-Claude Ngongo, deputy editor of the weekly
newspaper Fair Play, has been detained in the DRC capital Kinshasa for a
week without charge, according to local press freedom group Journaliste en
Danger (JED). Local journalists say Ngongo has been questioned about an
article he wrote denouncing corrupt practices by an expatriate businessman.

Ngongo was arrested on May 19, according to JED. On May 25, he was
transferred from a police cell to a Kinshasa prison, where JED was today
able to visit him. Ngongo told JED he has been questioned many times about
coverage of a conflict between William Damseaux and Berge Namikian, two
expatriate businessmen based in Kinshasa. Ngongo was asked about an article
in which he questioned why Damseaux, who is wealthy, had been awarded
indigent status and therefore did not have to pay legal costs in a court
battle with Namikian.

Damseaux, a Belgian expatriate who has been based in DRC for many years, is
a leading businessman with interests in diverse sectors, including importing
frozen foods.

"CPJ is deeply concerned about the detention of our colleague Lucien-Claude
Ngongo," said CPJ executive director Ann Cooper. "We call on Congolese
authorities to release him immediately."

CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to
safeguard press freedom worldwide. For more information about press
conditions in the DRC, visit www.cpj.org.

==
Julia Crawford
The Committee to Protect Journalists
330 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10001
212-465-9344 x112
[email protected]
www.cpj.org

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