Kinshasa, March 18, 2024 – 48 hours before the verdict in the Stanis Bujakera trial, scheduled for March 20, professional media organizations launched a mobilization on Monday March 18 to demand the acquittal of the journalist.
In the declaration read by Tshivis Tshivuadi, secretary general of the organization Journalist in Danger (JED) and spokesperson for the occasion, they call on the judges of the Kinshasa/Gombe high court to show a surge of honor and independence by ordering his pure and simple acquittal for this trial deemed “unjust”. During the last hearing, the prosecutor requested a 20-year sentence once morest the journalist, who is otherwise innocent of the facts put once morest him.
Furthermore, these professional organizations maintain that otherwise, public opinion will hold that the journalist remains innocent of this trial described as political which left him languishing for more than 6 months in prison.
“In any case, and whatever the verdict that will be pronounced on him this Wednesday, March 20, 2024, history will record that this journalist was innocent of all the accusations brought once morest him. That the trial of Stanis Bujakera was a political trial. His arrest and detention for more than 6 months constitute the most serious attacks on freedom of the press and expression that the Congolese authorities might commit and they did so.“, did he declare.
Likewise, they maintain that the objective through this trial is not only to condemn Stanis Bujakera, but more to deal a blow to the free and independent press.
“Faced with the dangers which now threaten the very foundations of democracy in our country, we, Congolese journalists and media professionals, must remain mobilized once morest any attempt to confiscate or call into question our hard-won areas of freedom. Because, through the Stanis Bujakera trial, it is the future of the free and independent press which is in danger”.
For his part, Jean Marie Kassamba, provincial president of the National Press Union of Congo (UNPC/Kinshasa) invited journalists and all media professionals to mobilize on March 20 in front of the central prison to show their support for Stanis Bujakera.
“I invite us to a major mobilization now for the support of our colleague. I invite you to come in large numbers this March 20 to the central prison to witness this verdict and I ask you to be mobilized for the rest of the events. Whatever the outcome, for us Stanis Bujakera is an innocent and victim who we must support at all costs”he said
Note that Stanis Bujakera was arrested on September 8, 2023 at N’djili international airport in Kinshasa on his way to Lubumbashi. This deputy publishing director of the online media Actualite.cd and correspondent for the media JeunAfrique is accused of having falsified documents from an ANR report in connection with the death of former minister Chérubin Okende.
Cédric BEYA
2024-03-18 16:51:48
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