Name Sylvain Ngabu Chumbu  
Surname Ngabu Chumbu
First Names Sylvain
Alternate Name  
Title Mr
Country of Birth Congo (DRC)
Positions
From To Organisation Position
2007   Ministry of Urban Planning & Housing Minister of Urban Planning & Housing
2007 2007 Minister of Higher Education & Scientific Research State Minister of Higher Education
2006   Parti Lumumbiste Unifie Permanent Secretary, PALU
Date of Birth  
Political Affiliation PALU
eMail  
Telephone  
Address  
Notes New York, October 25, 2007—A Congolese government minister invited two television journalists to his office in the capital, Kinshasa, and then ordered police to beat them when they arrived, according to news reports and local press freedom group Journaliste en Danger. The incident came on the heels of a government decree summarily banning 38 private broadcasters over alleged regulatory noncompliance.
Higher Education Minister Sylvain Ngabu ordered policemen to beat news director Heustache Namunanika and cameraman Didier Lofumbwa of private broadcaster Horizon 33 after the station aired a news program discussing Ngabu’s decision to suspend Dieudonné Kalindye, the chancellor of a local university, according to news reports. In the program, shown October 19, and again two days later, Namunakia raised critical questions about the government’s role in the controversy after interviewing both Ngabu and Kalindye.
Lofumbwa was preparing his camera to film Ngabu when five armed officers assaulted him from behind, using rifle butts to beat him while dragging him out of the office, he told CPJ. He received treatment for bruises and chest pains, according to Namunika, who escaped the beating, but had his clothes torn in the scuffle.
Calls from CPJ to Information Minister Toussaint Tshilombo Send were not immediately returned, but his chief of staff, Faustin Fwafa, said Send “deplored” the incident, adding that a government cabinet meeting would discuss the issue on Friday.
A complaint against Ngabu and the guards for unlawful confinement and assault and battery was filed on the journalists’ behalf on Wednesday, defense lawyer Jean-Pierre Ngunda told CPJ.
[ 25 Oct 2007 - http://www.cpj.org/news/2007/africa/drc25oct07na.html ]
Record last updated on 14 DEC 2007