FUNDACION MANANTIAL DE VALORES. RIF-29849923-0. VENEZUELA CIUDAD DE PUERTO LA CRUZ.

Shalom!

With respect and humility let me share with you the ruling situation which affected my country the Democratic Republic of Congo.

After years of ethnic and armed conflict, including the peaceful agreement of Sun City (South Africa) in 2003 which all sides had agreed to cease fire for a transitional government which has conducted to despite the 2006 general elections, which brought democratic institutions to power, once again simmering ethnic conflicts have become time bombs in some provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
In the eastern provinces (Katanga, Nord and Sud Kivu, Province Orientale), politicians stir up and often exploit tribe and cultural differences to serve their own purposes. Some media, presses agencies and organizations survive on corruption, poverty and fear because we lack ours financial independence and sustainability then they surrender and are prostitute before the financial conditional supports of politicians.
In this fragile environment, there are independent presses agencies, organization and media outlets most of which are controlled, directly or indirectly, by political, administrative or security forces working very hard to be a vehicle of peace, to contribute for democracy, good governance, to promote human rights and transparence for an accountability governance from local to national level. Civil Society leaders were taken in hostage by the Congolese politicians by buying them to exchange power to political position in the regime where Journalists are in confusion of opinion and freedom of information when now there are emerged of presses agencies of Congolese politicians who invest now in the media not because they are passionate about sharing information, or because they hope to make a profit, but because they use their media as well as a tool that helps them to gain or preserve their power and strengthen dictatorship regime in diffusing wrong information to ignored community. Additional pressures, including the constant threat of censorship, allegedly on behalf of protecting national security and preserving public order, and self-censorship, compound this political interference. Violent crimes against journalists of integrity, including murder, physical attacks, and death threats, persist. The general climate has worsened since the Congolese and Rwandan armies jointly launched attacks in the eastern DRC against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (the Rwandan Hutu rebel forces who have lived as refugees in the DRC since 1994, and have been accused of driving the Rwandan genocide.)
While freedom of the press is officially guaranteed by the constitution, and the specific causes of this freedom are spelled out in the law, the government shows no political will to ensure freedom of the press may be exercised. To the contrary, it shows a clear intention to muzzle the independent press and stifle any opinion opposed to the government’s view, according to the MSI panel (Media Sustainability Index). In one of the most overt examples seen in the past year, Lambert Mende Omalanga, the minister of communications and the media, and the attorney general warned the press not to release news or publish articles that might in the government’s opinion demoralize the troops fighting the Rwandan Hutu rebels. A few weeks later, on July 26, 2009, the government accused the public French radio station, Radio France Internationale (RFI), of doing precisely that, and cut the station’s signal throughout the entire country.
Still, here are organizations working to strengthen the press and raising awareness about threats, various pressures, and the pervasive government censorship and self-censorship that undermine the credibility of the Congolese press. Human rights advocates do react to violations against journalists, and pressure from advocacy organizations has played a role in bringing some perpetrators to justice without any positive justice actions.

Please help us to be empower us and strengthen our editorial and financial independence.

We wait for your answer very soon.

For PRESS MAGAZINE MIROIR DE L’EST

KALUME LEONARDI, Asylum Seeker since 2010
Freelance Journalist/Investigative Reporter/ Documentary-Photographer,
MIROIR DE L’EST MAGAZINE

The Republic of Uganda/ Central Province
Kampala city/ Makindye Division / Madrisa Stage/ CEPC Intl. Church
Email : miroirest01@yahoo.fr / jkalume@gmail.com
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