Congo Brazzaville: names of media houses controlled by Denis Sassou Nguesso

Sponsoring & investing in media locally

In Congo, the government through the Nguessos is in control of the state owned electronic media: radio and television abbreviated CNRTV and the Print media: La Nouvelle Republique, which is officially the national daily. The particularity of La Nouvelle Republique is as already mentioned, is that, its publications or periodicity are irregular. Furthermore, what passes for privately owned media houses: print and electronic: MNTV, Top TV, Vox Congo, ESTV, DRTV and TPT Pointe Noire are either owned by the brother, son, daughter, nephews of the President of the Republic or Army Generals, government ministers and people who are close to the regime.  It is the same situation with print media Houses: Le Patriote and Le Troubadour that are everything but private.  The first is owned by the political adviser to the President and the second by General Jean Francois Ndenguet.

Investing in western media: France

Since they (the Nguessos) have total and complete control over internal or local media, they are now attempting to control foreign print and electronic media. Hence the Congolese government is investing massively through advertorials in pan African French language magazine: Jeune Afrique or purely French newspapers such as Le Figaro or Ouest France. In a bid to further affirm the regime and family control or influence within French media landscape, it is claimed in Brazzaville that, Sassou Nguesso has shares in two major French newspapers: Le Monde and Nouvelle Observateur. How possible? That is what I have tried while still in Congo to find out. However, those circulating the latter news have it that, Sassou Nguesso bought shares in Le Monde and Nouvelle Observateur, through Mathieu Pigasse. Mr Mathieu Pigasse is the nephew of Jean Paul Pigasse, the manager of ADIAC media Group. However, I have not been able to  independently confirm the latter mentioned information, that is why, even though in Brazzaville there are elements of truths in most rumours, I can only by the time of writing this section, refer to Sassou Nguesso’s ownership of shares in the aforementioned two prestigious French newspapers as mere rumours. However, Mathieu Pigasse, who is a banker, is as already mentioned, rumored to be among people along with Moussa Yaya, who assisted Congo to doctor its statistics in a bid to qualify her for the Highly Poor and Indebted Countries Programme.  In Brazzaville, as at when I was still there, several questions were posed by citizens, regarding Mathieu Pigasse.  Some the questions asked were: Where did Mathieu Pigasse get money to buy controlling shares in two major newspapers in France?  Was it even true that, he had shares in Le Monde and Nouvelle Observateur? If he has shares in those two French newspapers, did he buy them with proceeds from services rendered to the government of Congo, as was done or offered to Moussa Yaya, through licenses awarded to Kontinent in the areas of oil exploration and Telecommunications? 

Joachim Mbanza: Profile of the editor–in-chief of Congo’s most professional newspapers

Joachim Mbanza: he is a journalist and editor–in-chief of Congo’s oldest newspaper, La Semaine Africaine. Until Joachim Mbanza decided to cave-in to the pressure of the state, especially to the head of the Congolese Police Force, General Jean Francois Ndenguet, the biweekly that he is managing, was one of the most professional newspapers in the country and also within the central African sub region. The professionalism of La Semaine Africaine may not have changed according to some, but when a media is no longer objective, can it still be referred to as professional? It is a question that, I will like professional of the journalism profession to give me an answer. Although Mr Mbanza is now playing the same role on the side of General Jean Francois Ndenguet as Francois Bikindou, even though in a less assertive role, La Semaine Africain has not yet become a second Troubadour newspaper. And whatever his current allegiances with the regime are, Mbanza remains    one of the most professional and brilliant journalist in Congo. To his discharge, I won’t conclude that, he is a sellout. My conviction is that, his fear of state repression and his desire not become a second Bruno Ossebi or Joseph Ngouala, couple with some lining of greed, may have forced him to collaborate with the very forces and people, who are the predators of free speech and who above all, abhor free and independent press and thoughts.

His regular participation in the live weekly Congo Presse Club programme, hosted by Andre Ondele on Tele Congo is pathetic. It has dented the respect that, a majority of Congolese had for him. And this is truer because, when taking part in Congo Press Club, he is unable to express himself objectively on national and international issues, especially, those that concerns Denis Sassou Nguesso. However, he is an intelligent man. For after professionally soiling himself, just to please the regime on Tele Congo, he redeems himself by coming to take part in a weekly programme on MNTV called Point de Presse, anchored by Emery Patrice Orbargui. The difference between Congo Press Club, broadcast of Tele Congo with Point de Press, broadcast on MNTV is that, the first is a not objective and it is a mere propaganda programme, whereas the second is professionally balanced. And this might explain the reason why; Joachim Mbanza participated every Sunday in Point de Press. In Point de Press, he was   free to express his true professional self. Just like Alphonse Ndongo, Joachim Mbanza has a solid mastery of the Congolese political landscape and that may explain the reason why, he is ambiguous.  While he is accused of collaborating with General Jean Francois Ndenguet, just like Francois Bikindou does, which is not a lie, but he refuses. However the assumed politician and member of the ruling party that he is closed to and that he officially operates as communications adviser is Claude Alphonse N’silou. Perhaps he accepts to be labeled close to N’silou than Ndenguet because the first is less radioactive than the second.

In my opinion, Joachim Mbanza seems to operate like a realist, who thinks that, if you can’t beat the current brutal regime of Denis Sassou Nguesso, you must join them, even if unconvincingly. However, I am totally against such attitudes and opinions now prevalent in the country. The attitude of sitting on the fence is not worthy of a man of the professional calibre of Joachim Mbanza, on whom many Congolese are counting on to provide them with objective information. Furthermore, democracy can’t prosper in a situation where people are not ready to sacrifice themselves for the collective good. However, collaborating with the government as he is doing, doesn’t remove the fact that, he was trained in one of France’s most prestigious schools of journalism, based in Lille. And this has made him to be among the few group of Congolese journalists, who got their training in the free world, as opposed to the majority who studied press and propaganda in eastern Europe under communism or in the former USSR and Cuba, hence he knows his job well. But unfortunately, as mentioned above, he is putting his professional know how in journalism, at the service of Denis Sassou Nguesso, who is a brutal dictator. His weak point, I think, is that, he is not bold enough to challenge the dictatorship through his writings. But one thing is clear; he doesn’t support Denis Sassou Nguesso or the way that he is governing the country.

Cephas Germain Ewangui: Profile of a traitor to a honest course

Cephas Germain Ewangui: he is one of the major actors of Congo’s civil society organisations. And he is at the head of two civil society bodies namely: Fédération Congolaise des Droits de L’homme, in French or in English, Congolese Federation of Human rights Defense Group, abbreviated in French as FECODHA and the Forum de la Société Civile pour les Elections Libres et Transparentes or in English, Civil Society Forum for Free, Fair and Transparent Elections, abbreviated in French as FOSOCEL. Cephas Germain Ewangui is an apparently calm, intelligent and sincere looking man, who gives the impression of fighting tooth and nail for the defense and promotion of real democracy and the respect of human rights in Congo. But in reality, this man born on the 28^th of May 1963 in Brazzaville, as his Facebook page indicates, is everything but genuine. He is not working for the people. He is working for himself and the government.

Both organizations that he heads are not independent and seldom criticize the excess of the government, when it comes to flagrant human rights violations or abuses. While he passes for a pro-democracy activist and human right defender, his organisations seldom criticizes the government on the wanton arrest, expulsion of journalists or the unjustifiable suspension and closure of media houses in Congo. What he is instead more interested in, is to travel around the world and attend meetings and seminars with the sole aim to prop up the image of the government. In order to trick Congolese and the international community, he sometimes issues lukewarm critical communiqués against the government followed by Press Conferences where pressmen and women are paid and then broadcast widely on state owned media. He is curiously the only head of civil society organization in Congo, who is never arrested and who is strangely always present in the office of General Jean Francois Ndenguet, the inglorious head of the Congolese Police Force.  He is also more interested in obtaining influential posts of responsibilities within the Congolese government created National Human Rights Council. As the head of two civil society organizations, he would have normally played middle or meditating roles, by criticizing the positions or excesses of the government and also that of the opposition.

But he is mute and instead plays the role of trying to give a semblance of fairness to the government of Congo. Hence he appears mostly whenever the government of Congo is facing international condemnation for its recurrent human rights abuses, like what is currently going on the south of Brazzaville and the Pool region. The organisations that, he represents falls in line with Congo government’s strategy to eliminate or crowd out real civil society organisations, who are capable or who are denouncing government excesses. Furthermore, the strategy of the Congolese government is that of numbers. They have created several fictitious civil society organisations, foundations and political parties, to give a false impression to the international community, especially western governments that; there is real democracy and freedom of speech in the country. The Congolese government just as some of its citizens, in particular its elite, are professionals in dissimulation. In fact, it is rumored that, his organizations are sponsored by Jean Dominique Okemba, the nephew and special adviser to the President of the Republic. The reason why Jean Dominique Okemba is allegedly sponsoring the civil society organizations of Mr Ewangui, as he does with hundred others is simple. It is to counter the influence of real civil society organizations in the country and whose leaders and members, are often subject of police brutalities and persecution.

I have personally seen him in the office of the former minister of Communications, Bienvenu Okiemy, when he came to plead with the minister to do all he could, in order to permit or facilitate his appointment as second or first vice chair at the Congo’s National Human Rights Commission, which is headed by Jean Martin Bemba. Paradoxically, the government has on several occasions wanted to arrest Mr Bemba, simply because, he wanted to apply to the letter, the rules and regulations of the organization that, he is heading. One of such rules requires independence and strict neutrality. Something the government doesn’t want in practice. Cephas Germain Ewangui, although calm and seemingly intelligent, is sadly amongst the many Congolese, who out of greed are destroying the credibility of civil society organizations and also holding back the progress of democracy and the respect of human rights, simply because, they are supporting the government’s duplicity.

He is a traitor to the honest course and quest for real democracy and the respect for human rights that a majority of Congolese so crave. Because of his treachery, Cephas Germain Ewangui will not have any role to play in a Congo that will be equitable. However, he could have a role, if he confesses of his sins and exposes also those who sponsored him and their tactics and more importantly, expose others like him, who benefited or are benefiting from the inhumane tactics of the government of Denis Sassou Nguesso.