Radio Silence

 From IFEX, accounts of journalists being targeted in fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo:

Journalists and other civilians are deliberately being targeted by rebel forces and government-backed militias in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, report Journalist in Danger (JED), Human Rights Watch and other IFEX members.

[...]

On 4 November, Belgian journalist Thomas Scheen, African correspondent for the German newspaper "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", and his interpreter Charles Ntiricya and their driver Roger Bangue, were abducted by Mai Mai forces in Kinwanja. They were released three days later.

Alfred Munyamaliza Bitwahiki Njonjo, a journalist and presenter on the community radio station Radio Communautaire Ushikira (RACOU), who was reportedly killed in the clashes, is in fact alive. In a phone interview with JED, Njonjo and RACOU's editor-in-chief Faustin Tawite said that, fearing for their lives, they took refuge in a United Nations Mission (MONUC) camp on 7 November.

But RACOU, the only radio station in Kiwanja, was pillaged by Nkunda's forces, says JED, and Njonjo's home was burned down by Mai Mai militias. The station had been airing government press statements and interviews with officials about the security situation. Four other stations in the war zone have pre-emptively shut down, fearing looting, reports the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Here you have not only journalists in danger, but the closing of radio stations because of insecurity. This is especially troublesome at a time when panic can act as a match thrown on tinder-dry wood. A network of communication that would allow villages to communicate information to each other (and allow organizations such as the UN to disseminate information about the situation) would go a long way to keeping some semblance of order amongst tremendous chaos.

I am on the look-out for blogs and Web sites that provide on-the-ground accounts of the situation in the DRC. I have pointed out a couple so far, but if know of any please leave a note in the comments section or e-mail me.