United States Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo Lucy Tamlyn has lent her voice on the arbitrarily detention of Reuters and Jeune Afrique correspondent Stanis Bujakera.
Bujakera was arrested at N’djili International Airport on Friday as he was getting ready to fly out of the capital Kinshasa.
No official charges have been slapped on the journalists but sources indicate he is being held on false allegations of being the author of an article that exposed President Félix Tshisekedi’s hand in the murder of opposition Ensemble pour la République spokesperson Chérubin Okende.
Bujakera has been thrown into a filthy police cell with unsavory sanitary conditions where he has spent his second night.
“We remain deeply concerned by the detention of journalist Stanis Bujakera.
“Journalists should be able to do their work without fear of prosecution,” Ambassador Tamlyn posted on X, formerly twitter, on Sunday morning.
An organization representing journalists has also condemned the arrest of Bujakera.
“JA Asbl strongly condemns the undue pressure exerted on media professionals and calls for their immediate release.
“JA Asbl regrets that acts of harassment and intimidation by security forces as elections approach,” Blaise Zahinda of AJ ASBL has said.
The democratic space in the DRC is shrinking ahead of the December 20, 2023 polls.
Civilians in Goma and Lubumbashi have been massacred for staging protests, opposition leaders like Salomon Kalonda Della, Mike Mukebayi and Franck Diongo have been brutally arrested while Okende was assassinated by suspected state agents who kidnapped him from the premises of the Constitutional Court.
Journalists have also not been spared with others stoned during protests and some like Peter Tiani and Bujakera being arrested as a way of being intimidated.
