Responding to the decision by authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to charge journalist Stanis Bujakera, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Sarah Jackson said:

"Congolese authorities must drop disingenuous charges against Bujakera and immediately and unconditionally release him.

"His arrest and arbitrary detention since last week on trumped-up charges is a blatant violation of press freedom.

His arrest and arbitrary detention since last week on trumped-up charges is a blatant violation of press freedomSarah Jackson, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for East & Southern Africa

"It is yet further evidence of the full-scale attack on human rights, including the rights of journalists, on the part of DRC authorities under President Tshisekedi, especially in the run-up to the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for December."

BACKGROUND

Stanis Bujakera Tshiamala is the DRC correspondent for Thomson Reuters and Jeune Afrique, Actualité.CD's deputy editor. He was arrested by security agents on 8 September at Kinshasa's N'djili International Airport as he was about to board a flight to the city of Lubumbashi in the south-east of the DRC on a business trip. The authorities questioned him about an article that cited a leaked confidential report attributed to the National Intelligence Agency (ANR). The report is believed to implicate military intelligence services in the abduction and murder of an opposition MP last July, and thus calls into question the authorities' official version of the case. On 11 September, Stanis Bujakera was charged with "spreading rumours" and "disseminating fake news", even though he was not named as the author of the article in question. He risks 15 years in prison.