Deploring an alarming decline in press freedom in the Central African Republic, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the government to abandon a bill that would make press offences punishable by imprisonment, and to do what is necessary to protect journalists, who are being subjected to a wave of arrests, physical attacks and threats.

At a meeting on 17 October with his staff to which journalists were invited, justice minister Arnaud Djoubaye Abazene unveiled a proposed revision of the December 2020 law on freedom of communication, which decriminalised press offences. If his bill is adopted, journalists could again be jailed in connection with their work and the media regulator, the High Council for Communication (HCC), would be placed under the communication ministry’s control.

“Instead of protecting journalists against attacks, threats and arbitrary arrest, the authorities are taking steps to crack down harder on the media,” said Sadibou Marong, the head of RSF’s sub-Saharan desk. “If this law passes, it will give the authorities a free hand to reinforce censorship and control information. In a country where violence is still rampant in several regions, the authorities should promote the media so that they can play their role fully, not restore prison sentences for press offences. We urge them to abandon this bill and to do everything possible to protect journalists.”

RSF has been told that the proposed revision of the press law is currently being examined by the government general secretariat, and will have to be approved by the cabinet before being submitted to parliament.

The changes are being proposed against a backdrop of increased arrests, attacks and threats against journalists during the past two months.

Journalists harassed

The victims include the editor of the newspaper Le Charpentier, Christian Azoudaoua, who was arrested arbitrarily on 6 September on the orders of the national assembly’s deputy speaker after Azoudaoua named him in an article about an alleged case of embezzlement within the national assembly. Azoudaoua was finally released at the end of September.

After an article about a senior army officer and articles criticising the government’s proposed changes to the constitution, recently rejected by the constitutional court, Quotidien de Bangui journalist Landry Ulrich Nguéma Ngokpélé was forced to leave his home and go into hiding 40 km outside the capital because of the threat of reprisals. “The authorities have become very virulent towards critical media,” he told RSF.

Fiacre Salabé, a freelance journalist who often criticises the government in his articles, has been threatened and attacked, especially after he criticised the proposed amendments to the constitution and the government’s plan to put the HCC under the communication ministry’s control.

“Ever since then, I’ve been receiving anonymous phone calls and death threats and I’m being directly attacked on social media,” he said. He was physically attacked on 4 September by demonstrators while covering a rally organised by a pro-government group, and again on 8 October by two youths who recognised him in the street.

Ndjoni Sango news site director Éric Ngaba, who began writing and publishing a series of articles about a government opponent in June, has been receiving repeated threats since September in the forms of SMS messages, videos on Facebook and cartoons portraying him in in a threatening manner on social media.

Intimidation of independent media

Arrests and violence are not the only methods used to intimidate independent media, as recently confirmed by Ndeke Luka, a leading radio station that uses some editorial independence in its coverage of national news. After it broadcast several investigative reports exposing governance shortcomings, the communication minister told Ndeke Luka that the government was going to review its partnership with the station and the amount of taxes it has to pay

The CAR is ranked 101st out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2022 World Press Freedom Index.

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Central African Republic authorities should drop their defamation investigation into journalist Landry Ulrich Nguema Ngokpélé and ensure that members of the press can work freely and safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

At about 4 p.m. on June 3, police officers with the Central Office for the Repression of Banditry (​OCRB) arrested Nguema Ngokpélé, the publication director of the privately owned Le Quotidien de Bangui newspaper, according to news reports, the journalist, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and a statement by the Central African Journalists’ Union.

The officers took the journalist to the Ngaragba Central Prison in Bangui, the capital, where they held him overnight and granted him provisional release the following day, according to the journalist and a copy of the release order reviewed by CPJ.

Police raided Nguema Ngokpélé’s room at the Bangui Ledger Plaza hotel while he was in detention and seized two computers, he said, adding that they had not been returned as of today.

If convicted of criminal defamation, Nguema Ngokpélé could face a fine of 100,000 to 500,000 Central African francs (US $180 to $901) under Article 145 of the country’s 2020 Law on Freedom of Communication, which CPJ reviewed.

“There was absolutely no reason for journalist Landry Ulrich Nguema Ngokpélé to have been arrested or to face legal harassment for his reporting,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “Authorities should swiftly return Nguema Ngokpélé’s computers and ensure journalists in the Central African Republic can work free from intimidation.”

The defamation investigation stems from a complaint filed by Harouna Douamba, the president of Aimons Notre Afrique, a local nongovernmental organization. The complaint, which CPJ reviewed, cites a 2018 article by Le Quotidien de Bangui alleging that Douamba had swindled government authorities.

Nguema Ngokpele, however, told CPJ that he believed the complaint was retaliation for a separate article, which alleged that Douamba’s organization had not paid rent for its office space.

The complaint also alleged that Nguema Ngokpélé asked Douamba to pay him in exchange for having the article taken offline, a claim the journalist denied.

CPJ repeatedly called Douamba for comment, but he did not answer.

Vicent Namroba, the general rapporteur of the High Council of Communications, the Central African Republic’s media and communications regulator, told CPJ in a phone interview that under the country’s laws no journalist should go to prison for their work, but they may be fined.

Nguema Ngokpélé told CPJ he was arrested while making a required appearance at the Bangui prosecutor’s office as part of a separate defamation case from September 2020. That case stemmed from Le Quotidien de Bangui’s coverage of alleged corruption by the country’s minister of water, forestry, hunting, and fishing, the journalist told CPJ; he added that he is required to appear at the prosecutor’s office weekly in relation to that case.

Nguema Ngokpélé said that case was transferred to the Bangui Correctional Court on March 17, a jurisdictional decision which he had appealed.

While checking in for that required appearance on June 3, Judge Thierry Blaise Angalaka-Nzapato informed Nguema Ngokpélé of Douamba’s complaint, questioned him about it, and then ordered police to arrest him, the journalist said.

Angalaka-Nzapato also issued the warrant to raid Nguema Ngokpélé’s hotel room while he was imprisoned, and told him his computers were being “examined” by the OCRB and would be returned to him in the presence of a lawyer, the journalist said.

Nguema Ngokpélé told CPJ that he does not have a lawyer, and said he was “handicapped [in my work] since I have to run the newspaper with the means at my disposal.”

CPJ’s called Angalaka-Nzapato, Bangui prosecutor Alain Lengandet, and the official who filed the September 2020 complaint for comment, but no one answered.

Jean Saint-Clair Maka Gbssokotto, the coordinator of the Consortium of Central African Journalists Against Disinformation, told CPJ by messaging app that the arrest of Nguema Ngokpele had been “arbitrary” and said, “the press is muzzled and journalists in CAR face threats on a daily basis.”

Nguema Ngokpélé told CPJ that he has also filed three recent complaints to the Bangui public prosecutor over threats he received in response to his news coverage. CPJ reviewed those complaints, which allege threats from local officials and from a since-deleted Facebook account.

The journalist told CPJ that he has not received any response from the public prosecutor in relation to those complaints.

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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is appalled to learn that two French journalists were beaten by police and then arrested while covering a banned opposition demonstration in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, on 15 June, and calls for those responsible to be identified and punished.

“Members of the Central African Office for the Suppression of Banditry (OCRB) gave me several kicks, punches and blows with their guns when I identified myself to them as an accredited journalist,” Agence France-Presse reporter Florent Vergnes said.

Vergnes and his AFP colleague Charles Bouessel were then subjected to an interrogation lasting several hours during which they were accused of helping to organize the protest. Part of their equipment was smashed and confiscated. They were finally freed after being held for six hours.

“The withdrawal of the charges against these two journalists is essential but far from sufficient,” said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Africa desk “The police who violently attacked these two journalists in the course of their reporting and then used trumped-up charges in an attempt to disguise their blunder must be prosecuted and punished appropriately.  How this case is handled will serve as a test of the state of press freedom in the CAR.”

The CAR is ranked 145th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2019 World Press Freedom Index.

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In an interview with PetaPixel in October 2013, the late French photojournalist Camille Lepage reflected on why she chose to work in conflict zones such as South Sudan: “I can’t accept that people’s tragedies are silenced simply because no one can make money out of them”

Camille Lepage was an independent photojournalist who was passionate about human rights and the underreported consequences of international conflicts. In her short career, Lepage’s work appeared in such prestigious publications as The New York Times, Le Monde, BBC, Washington Post, Al Jazeera and The Guardian. Lepage also worked with numerous human rights organizations, including Médecins Sans Frontières and Amnesty International.

Born and raised in Angers, France, Lepage studied journalism at Southampton Solent University in the U.K. But it was only in the last few months of her degree that she decided to focus exclusively on photography. Lepage spoke to PetaPixel about what drew her to that medium in particular: “What fascinates me about photography is its universal language. Unlike other media, anyone can understand a picture, feel it, it speaks to the viewers.”

While undergoing her studies, Lepage closely followed the creation of South Sudan, and became particularly interested in the conflict in the Nuba mountains. Upon graduation, she decided to move there to document what she felt the mainstream media was failing to cover.

Her photographs of South Sudan, including a series called “Vanishing Youth,” reveal the human side of the conflict, and the lack of alternatives that exist for individuals and communities affected by such violence. Her images of Sudan’s South Kordofan region, illustrated by a series called “You will forget me” are “an attempt to illustrate the change in the Nuba way of life” since Khartoum began to enforce Sharia Law.

As a former professor of Lepage’s told BBC: “she was interested in people who were voiceless and powerless rather than the great and powerful.”

In 2014, Lepage moved to the Central African Republic, to document the sectarian conflict between Seleka rebels and anti-balaka militants. Her perspective on the conflict can be seen through a series called “On est ensemble”, which translates into “we are together.”

Lepage’s body was found in May 2014 in the Central African Republic, approximately a week after her last tweet said that she was travelling with anti-balaka militia to an area where 150 people had been killed in the two months prior.

According to IFEX member Reporters without Borders (RSF) an investigation opened in France immediately following Lepage’s death has made little progress thus far. However, in May 2016, RSF reported that French investigating judge Virginie Van-Geyete would soon be sending a group of special investigators to the Central African Republic to look into Lepage’s case, among others.

Lepage’s family has honoured their daughter by setting up an organisation dedicated to her memory, called Camille Lepage – On est ensemble. The goals of the organisation include giving an annual prize to photojournalists, promoting the protection of photographers and journalists working in conflict zones, and participating “in helping populations in conflict zones, in the sense of Camille’s values.”

The media and free expression community continue to commemorate Lepage’s death and call for justice. On 8 June 2016, Lepage’s parents led hundreds of delegates representing the International Federation of Journalists – an IFEX member – in a march through Angers, France, to commemorate journalists killed while performing their line of work, including Lepage. IFJ President Jim Boumelha, said: “The death of a journalist such as Camille is utterly painful. It is an injustice. The killing of journalists doesn’t only affect journalists, media and unions. It is a concern for society as a whole.”

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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the authorities in the Central African Republic to complete all necessary investigations into French photojournalist Camille Lepage’s murder five years ago, including a reenactment of the crime, in order to establish the facts of the case before it comes to trial, which could happen quite soon.

In what circumstances was Lepage shot dead in the CAR’s western Bouar region on 12 March 2014? After being mislaid for a time in the capital, Bangui, the Lepage murder case file has been found again, but the motive for her murder and the exact circumstances have yet to be established.

For the time being, the investigators seem to working on the assumption that the – mostly Christian – “anti-balaka” militiamen with whom Lepage was travelling were the victims of an ambush. But other theories, such as a dispute between rival militias, cannot be ruled out until all the necessary investigations have been concluded.

During the most recent criminal assizes in Bangui, the Lepage murder was added to the list of upcoming cases, suggesting that it could come to trial shortly.

“Five years after Camille Lepage’s murder, there is an urgent need to complete the CAR and French investigations and ensure that every effort has been made to establish the facts before holding a trial, which for the time being seems premature,” said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Africa desk. “We call on the French and CAR authorities and the United Nations mission in the CAR to do whatever is needed to carry out a reenactment of the murder, in order to get a more precise picture of the circumstances surrounding the crime.”

Lepage’s mother, Maryvonne Lepage, told RSF: “We will probably never know who exactly shot Camille, but a more extensive field investigation and visit by the judges to the scene of the crime would improve our chances of identifying the assailants, their leaders and their motives.”

Film about Camille Lepage

At the end of last year, a crew went to the CAR to make a film about Lepage, which could be released by the end of this year. “It shows what was special about Camille, her commitment to covering the conflict in the Central African Republic at first hand, in the field, with a very powerful human connection,” said Boris Lojkine, the film’s director.

The CAR continues to be a dangerous country for journalists five years after the civil war began. Three Russian reporters were murdered in the CAR last year after going there to investigate the presence of Russian mercenaries. The complete lack of transparency with which the investigation into their deaths has been conducted led RSF to call for an international investigation.

The CAR is ranked 145th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2019 World Press Freedom Index, after falling 33 places.

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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for an independent international enquiry into last July’s murder of three Russian journalists in the Central African Republic following the publication of a well-documented report by a centre for investigative journalism indicating that a CAR police officer and Russian military advisers were involved.

The three journalists – Orkhan Dzhemal, Alexander Rastorguyev and Kirill Radchenko – went to the CAR to make a documentary about the activities of mercenaries working for Wagner, a private Russian security linked to the Kremlin. The CAR and Russian authorities insist that their triple murder on 29 July was simply the result of an armed robbery that went wrong.

This is not so, according to the report published by Dossier, a centre for investigative journalism funded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former Russian oil industry magnate and Kremlin opponent now living in exile, who had hired the three murdered journalists to go to the CAR and make the documentary.

On the basis of phone records and interviews, the Dossier investigation has established that a CAR police officer linked to Russian military advisers was in constant contact with the journalists’ driver and followed all their movements.

The phone records also show that he was in constant contact with Alexander Sotov, a Russian military adviser who was himself in frequent contact with Valery Zakharov, the CAR president’s national security adviser. According to other investigative media reports, both Soto and Zakharov work for Wagner.

The Dossier investigation also established that the mobile phones used by the driver and by the journalists’ fixer, known only as “Martin,” were registered in false names and with false passports in the days and weeks prior to the Russian journalists’ arrival in the CAR.

“The CAR’s investigators and their Russian counterparts have failed to shed light on this triple murder in the nearly six months since it took place,” said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Africa desk. “The facts revealed by these phone records and many other documents deserve closer examination. At this point, only an independent international enquiry would be able to establish how these three journalists came to be murdered.”

The Russian authorities have issued a statement saying they will continue to work on the theory of an armed robbery that was facilitated by the negligence of the journalists’ employer, meaning Khodorkovsky. Without addressing the facts revealed in the report, they accuse Khodorkovsky of simply trying to exonerate himself.

The Central African Republic is ranked 112th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2018 World Press Freedom Index while Russia is ranked 148th.

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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Russian and local authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the murder of three Russian journalists in the Central African Republic shortly after their arrival to make a documentary about the presence of Russian mercenaries.

Orkhan Dzhemal, a well-known freelance war reporter, documentary filmmaker Alexander Rastorguyev and cameraman Kirill Radchenko were murdered by unidentified armed men on the night of 29 July near Sibut, a city 300 km north of the CAR capital, Bangui.

Communication minister and government spokesman Ange Maxime Kazagui said on TVCA last night that nine “turbaned kidnappers” speaking “neither French nor Sango” (the national language) shot the three Russian journalists after intercepting their vehicle 23 km outside Sibut.

Kazagui said that, thanks to the information provided by their driver, who managed to escape after being wounded, it was known that one of the journalists died on the spot and the other two died of their injuries shortly afterwards

According to the information obtained by RSF, the three Russian journalists had arrived in the CAR several days previously with the aim of investigating the role of mercenaries working for Wagner, a private Russian security company that is also known to be active in Syria.

Kazagui said the three journalists did not have press accreditation. But they were carrying press cards, according to the Russia foreign ministry, which said its embassy in Bangui had not, however, been informed of their presence in the CAR.

“Four years after French photojournalist Camille Lepage was killed in the CAR, this triple murder has shown the degree to which it is still extremely dangerous for journalists to cover the conflict in this country,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.

“We condemn these murders in the strongest terms and we urge the CAR and Russian authorities to conduct a serious and thorough investigation in order to identify those responsible.”

Investigation Control Centre (TsUR), an online investigative news website owned by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has confirmed that it asked the three journalists to make the documentary on this sensitive subject. Khodorkovsky is a former Russian oil industry magnate who now lives in exile and is one Vladimir Putin’s leading opponents.

Russia has stepped up its military presence in the CAR considerably since France withdrew its military intervention force, Operation Sangaris, in October 2016. President Faustin-Archange Touadéra is now protected by Russian soldiers, who provide training to the Central African Armed Forces (FACA). A significant amount of Russian arms were also delivered to the CAR from December 2017 to February 2018.

The CAR has been embroiled in an armed conflict ever since President François Bozizé was overthrown in March 2013 by the Seleka, a coalition of mainly Muslim militias. Christian self-defence groups called Anti-Balaka were then formed to combat the Seleka, plunging the country into a spiral of violence.

Camille Lepage, a 26-year-old French photojournalist, was murdered on 12 May 2014 while out reporting with an Anti-Balaka militia. RSF recently deplored the fact that her murderers have still not been identified and that judicial problems in Bangui continue to hold up the investigation

The Central African Republic is ranked 112th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2018 World Press Freedom Index.

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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) regrets that a leading community radio station in the southeast of the Central African Republic has been forced to close after being threatened by armed groups, and reminds all parties to the conflict of the need to respect media freedom and independence.

The main source of local news and information in the southeastern town of Bangassou and the surrounding region, Radio Mbari has been harassed and threatened repeatedly by rival armed factions, which accuse it of not broadcasting their messages with sufficient readiness.

The southeast of the CAR has seen violent clashes in recent months between local self-defence units and members of the UPC (Union for Peace in the CAR), a rebel group led by Ali Darass, a former leader of the now disbanded Seleka rebel coalition.

The violence reached a new level on 13 October 2017 when a member of a self-defence group burst into Radio Mbari and told staff to broadcast a communiqué that ordered Bangassou’s inhabitants not to go to the market in Tokoyo, one of the town’s districts.

The programme presenter wanted to have the communiqué approved by the head of programmes before broadcasting it, but the militiaman threatened him with his automatic weapon, forcing him to read it out on the air at once.

After this incident, the radio station’s management decided to temporarily suspend all broadcasting because of the growing violence.

Radio Mbari played a major role in restoring normality in Bangassou after an attack on the Tokoyo mosque in May and the ensuing exodus of thousands residents. It appealed for calm and allowed representatives of the different armed groups to speak on the air. Gira FM, a United Nations radio station that also broadcasts in the region, has less credibility and is seen by many as a propaganda outlet.

“The media’s role is to inform the public, not to serve as the mouthpiece of armed groups,” RSF said. “Threatening journalists is unacceptable. Under no circumstances can a conflict be used as an excuse for obstructing media freedom and independence.”

Since the presidential election that ended President Catherine Samba-Panza’s transitional government in March 2016, the security situation has worsened steadily in the CAR and fighting between armed groups has resumed throughout almost the entire county.

The CAR is ranked 113th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2017 World Press Freedom Index.

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She was brutally attacked by armed rebels who accused her of having “a sharp tongue”. She was first treated locally then was transferred to hospital in the Central African capital, Bangui the following month where she received more advanced care. She continued to suffer serious physical and mental after-effects from the attack.

“The death of this journalist, which witnesses agree was the direct result of the violent assault on her by armed men, highlights the serious dangers faced by those in the media in the Central African Republic over the past two years,” said Cléa Kahn-Sriber, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Africa desk.

“It is vital that the transitional government gives a strong commitment to guaranteeing journalists’ safety and ends the impunity that surround such assaults.”

The safety of those who work in the media continues to deteriorate in the Central African Republic. On 18 June, Reporters Without Borders was among the signatories of an open letter appealing to the transitional government and the international community to do all they can to comply with and enforce the right to information, and to protect journalists in the course of their work.

The CAR had the biggest fall of any country in the Reporters Without Borders 2014 World Press Freedom Index, dropping 43 places to 109th of 180 countries, compared with 2013.

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“At a time when Bangui is virtually cut off from the rest of the country, when voice calls are difficult and the Internet is almost non-existent, this ban constitutes a major violation of the free flow of news and information,” said Cléa Kahn-Sriber, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Africa desk.

“It also poses a major obstacle to journalistic work, which is already hard enough. What with the security situation preventing journalists from moving about freely in the interior or even in Bangui after the resurgence of violence in recent weeks, the SMS ban will make it even harder for them to gather, verify and circulate information. We urge the transitional government to rescind this censorship measure, which violates its commitment to democratic rule .”

A Bangui-based journalist confirmed to Reporters Without Borders that SMS messages can no longer be sent via the Orange, Télécel and Azur networks.

“When you send a text, you get an error message,” he said. “This complicates our work because many of our sources contact us by SMS. It is discreet, there is no danger of your neighbour hearing and, thanks to SMS quotas, it is a method of communication that still works even when you have used up all your phone credit.”

Issued on Prime Minister André Nzapayéké’s initiative with the aim of “restoring security throughout the country,” the ban follows a general strike call that, according to the Jeune Afrique news website, was circulated by SMS, namely to protest against the perceived failure of the Samba-Panza interim government to curb violence.

The Central African Republic is ranked 109th out of 180 countries in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, a fall of 43 places from its position in last year’s index.

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