Steeve Mbuyi, journalist at B-One and Samy Tumba, a freelance photographer, were released on Thursday, September 21, 2017 early in the afternoon, after 24 hours of police custody in a police station in Kinshasa.
The two journalists were arrested the day before while covering a demonstration by the dozens of protesting people in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs against the government’s cancellation of so-called semi biometric passports.
According to information received by JED, all those arrested during the demonstration were released a few hours later, except for the two journalists.
Contacted by JED a few hours earlier this Thursday, September 21, 2017, Colonel Pierrot Mwanamputu, spokesman of the police, had promised to invest to have the two colleagues released.
While taking note of this release, JED calls for an end to these untimely interpellations of journalists whenever they cover public demonstrations