Ghys Fortune Bemba: he is a
journalist and publisher of a weekly newspaper called Talassa. Unfortunately,
Talassa has been indefinitely banned by the government of Congo on the
instruction of the president of the Republic, so I was told by Philippe Mvouo.
Mr Mvouo is the head of the National Communications Council, a government body
in charge of monitoring the press. Mr Bemba, who is must be said is not a
journalist by profession but a theologian, who is at the forefront in the crusade
against corruption and also against the dictatorial government of Denis Sassou
Nguesso. unlike other professional journalists such as Joachim Mbanza or
Alphonse Ndongo, who take precautions, Ghys Fortune Bemba enjoys risk taking
when it come to denouncing corruption, state sponsored brutalities and all the
excesses of the regime of Denis Sassou Nguesso. He likes championing lost causes
and for that, he has also paid the price. Hence on several occasions he has
been arrested and tortured. And sometimes, he is on voluntary exile in France
or in Cameroon where he studied theology at the Protestant University of Yaoundé.
He is militant and fearless and uses his paper to write or criticize
corruption, human rights abuses and obstructions to press freedom and democracy.
What he lacks professionally
and intellectually is compensated through his militant posturing. His fearless
or boldness have helped solve several problems in the country. However, the
only problem that I have noticed with Bemba is that, he likes talking more how
he has succeeded in becoming rich with his colleague than on how to help
improve the profession and also how best to fight against the current
dictatorship. When I came to see him, he
will spend a long periods talking about his new buildings or his new car Rental
Company. Like any other person of his stature, he has his own detractors. Some claim
that, he can’t write French, while others claim that, he was formerly working
in collaboration with General Jean Francois Ndenguet. But I have no proves of
all those allegations. For if he was working for General Jean Francois Ndenguet
as claimed by some of his detractors, his newspaper won’t have been ban and he
would not have been a wanted man in the country. However, what I know with him
is that, he is close to the opposition, in particular to Andre Okombi Salissa.
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