Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has faulted the defamation case against a journalist who quoted a non-governmental organisation (NGO) report linking a former transport minister in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the alleged misuse of a public company’s funds.

The journalist, Pascal Mulegwa, has been summoned to appear before a Kinshasa court in the defamation case brought against him by Senator José Makila over the story published for Radio France Internationale (RFI) on 20 September.

The NGO, Observatory of Public Expenditure (ODEP), had claimed in the report that Makila may have channelled the funds of the transport company into his senatorial election campaign.

It was learnt that when Mulegwa responded to an earlier summons in October, he was questioned about his story by prosecutors in the Kinshasa district of Gombe but the plaintiff, Makila, did not turn up for the hearing.

‘The former minister was not even the target of the story. I contacted him before the story was broadcast. He sued me 24 hours later’, RSF quoted Mulegwa as saying.

But RSF said in a statement that the journalist was just doing his job, calling for the withdrawal of the case.

‘This case shows how journalists are still subjected to intimidation in the DRC’, RSF spokesperson Pauline Adès-Mével said.

‘Pascal Mulegwa did absolutely nothing wrong. He just quoted information in a report by an NGO, which is not being sued.

‘No real attempt has been made to establish the facts because the plaintiff did not deign to appear at the previous summons.

‘We call for all charges to be dropped against this journalist, who just did his job. It is time to stop intimidating journalists in connection with their work’.

In its latest annual report, RSF’s partner, Journalist in Danger (JED), noted it had registered at least 116 press freedom cases in 2020, including 40 arrests, in the country.

Source: Reporters Without Borders

Photo source: Pascal Mulegwa