Carole Agito Wants to be removed from the list of torturers of freedom of information
In a letter addressed to the Secretary General of JED, on November 3, 2017, the day after the publication of the Report on the state of freedom of press and expression in DR Congo, the Director General ai of the National Insurance Company (SONAS), Carole Agito, solicits the “understanding of JED” for the removal of her name from the list of “torturers of freedom of information”. For the sake of “fairness and justice,” she suggests.
In its 2017 report, JED publishes, among other things, a list containing the names of some fifteen personalities presented as the “killers of information in 2017”.
Ms. Carole Agito is on this list because of her involvement in the arrest and detention of journalist Serge Kabongo for about 6 months in the Makala Central Prison, which accused him of embezzlement.
In her letter to JED, Ms. Carole Agito recalls the ins and outs of this case that had pitted him against journalist Serge Kabongo, director of the newspaper “Métro News”. She claims to have, in her time, and to show her good faith, “verbally withdrawn her complaint,” as a result of a letter of apology sent by the journalist from prison.
She also said that she renounced her civil interests by avoiding appearing before the Gombe Peace Court in charge of this case.
While taking note of this right of reply, JED urges Mrs. Carole Agito to privilege from now on the ways of the professional conciliation, every time that she feels aggrieved by a writing of press.
As a reminder, Serge Kabongo, director of the newspaper “Metro News”, published in Kinshasa, was arrested on January 6, 2017, without any mandate by a group of plainclothes agents, accompanied by the press officer of Sonas who had dragged him into an ambush. The journalist was detained for approximately six months in Makala Central Prison, for publishing in the No. 36 edition of his newspaper on January 5, 2017, an article entitled: “Scandal in the direction of the Sonas: $ 1,300,000 diverted “.
