News Alert
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Sadio Kante after an attack by police in Brazzaville
on December 16, 2013/Photo: congo-liberty.com
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Abuja,
Nigeria, September 25, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns
Congolese authorities' decision to expel a freelance journalist from the
country and calls on them to allow her to enter the country and report freely.
Before her expulsion, Sadio Kante reported receiving threats in connection with
a series of stories she published on the attack of another journalist.
Kante
was arrested on Monday and held overnight in the capital, Brazzaville, before
being expelled to the Malian capital of Bamako early Tuesday, according to news
reports. Police accused her of disturbing the peace, drug consumption, and
illegal residence, the reports said.
Kante denied the allegations and said she
was a Congolese citizen because, although her father is Malian and her mother
Senegalese, she was born in Brazzaville, according to news reports and a copy of her birth certificate and a
Congolese identity card CPJ has reviewed.
Under
a 1961 Congolese citizenship law,
anyone born of foreign parents in the Congo is a citizen of the country if the
person resides there. The Congolese constitution recognizes that every Congolese
shall "have the right to Congolese citizenship ... [which shall not] be
arbitrarily taken" away.
Kante
told the online Oeil d'Afrique in an interview on Tuesday that her coverage of an attack
on Cameroonian journalist Elie Smith and his family had angered Brazzaville
police. She said that a friend of high-ranking police officials had threatened
her after her story was published, according to the interview. Kante did not
elaborate in the interview on the kind of threat she received or what was said.
Kante
told CPJ from Mali that the Brazzaville police kept her handcuffed for more
than two hours before deporting her and refused to allow her to take her
belongings and work equipment.
Kante
has also reported being threatened and attacked by Congolese police officers in recent
months, according to news reports.
An
aide to government spokesman Bienvenue Okiemey declined to comment to
CPJ, saying the spokesman would return the call. CPJ did not immediately
receive a call from the spokesman.
"The
Congolese government's decision to expel Sadio Kante from the country and tag
her as an illegal resident smacks of a deliberate ploy to silence her for her
journalism," said Peter Nkanga, CPJ's West Africa representative. "We
call on authorities to reverse this decision and allow Kante to return to her
country of birth and to her journalism practice."
CPJ is an
independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom
worldwide.
Contact:
Sue Valentine
Africa Program
Coordinator
Peter Nkanga
West Africa
Representative
Email: pnkanga@cpj.org
Tom Rhodes
East Africa
Representative
Email: trhodes@cpj.org
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