Congo bans Al Jazeera over its interview with a key rebel leader and threatens journalists

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Congo on Thursday banned Al Jazeera satellite news network over its interview with the leader of a violent rebel group that has seized territory in the country’s east in recent days.

Separately, Congo’s justice minister threatened journalists and others who report on the M23 rebels with the death penalty, though there is no law officially banning media from covering rebel groups.

There was no immediate comment from Al Jazeera, a pan-Arab satellite television news network based in Doha, Qatar.

According to Congolese government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya, authorities revoked press credentials of Qatar’s broadcaster in Congo, saying the network had interviewed the head of a “terror organization without proper accreditation.”

Al Jazeera on Wednesday aired an interview with Bertrand Bisimwa, the head of the M23 rebel movement in the eastern Congo. In the interview, Bisimwa blamed the government in the capital, Kinshasa, for violating an August ceasefire and claimed that M23 is waging an “existential war.”

M23 is the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups active in the mineral-rich area near the Congolese border with Rwanda, where more than 1 million people were displaced by fighting last year. A decade ago, the group seized the border city of Goma, and in late 2021 captured broad swaths of territory in eastern Congo.

Al Jazeera’s interview with Bisimwa was ”tantamount to an apology for terrorism and totally unacceptable,” Muyaya told a news conference, urging journalists not to “give the floor to terrorists.”

Hours earlier, Congo’s Justice Minister Constant Mutamba said on the social media platform X that anyone who reports on “the activities of the Rwandan army and its M23 auxiliaries, will now suffer the full force of the law (DEATH PENALTY).”

Muyaya, the government spokesperson, downplayed the threat, saying it was only an “interpretation” and that the minister’s statement was meant for anyone “who can be used ... to pass on messages from the enemy.”

Opposition spokesman Hervé Diakiese denounced Thursday’s ban and posted on X that freedom of expression means the ability “not only to say things that are pleasant to hear but also things that may displease. And the right to say so, even if they cause harm.”

“Being patriotic doesn’t mean being government propagandists,” Diakiese said.

Congo’s media regulatory body on Tuesday warned three French news organization — Radio France Internationale, France24 and TV5 Monde — over their coverage of the M23 rebels’ advances in eastern Congo.

Activist Jacques Issongo also criticized the ban on Al Jazeera and said that targeting the media was wrong.

“We can’t live in a country where we can’t hear another side of the story,” he told The Associated Press. “It’s imperative that we have the information.”