The international press freedom day celebrated in Kinshasa, this May 3, 2021, had as distinguished guest the new Minister of Communication and Media and Government spokesperson, Patrick Muyaya. Former journalist then national deputy, the latter felt like a fish in the water among the knights of the pen and the microphones.
“The request that you expressed during your meeting with the Head of Government, during the consultations, was to have a minister who knows the sector well, a professional. I therefore consider my appointment as a response to this request. And that henceforth, we can all bring together and bring about the necessary reforms to enable us to clean up the media sector ”, said Patrick Muyaya as a thank you to his former colleagues.
Clean up the sector is Patrick Muyaya’s response to the challenge launched to him by journalists through Journalist in Danger (JED), their NGO for the defense and promotion of press freedom which, after painting the gloomy picture of the state of press freedom in the DRC, even if it won with the advent of the President of the Republic Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi some five good places in the world ranking, declared: «Dear Patrick, we welcome your appointment as the head of the mMinistry of Communication and the Media. Your advent is a great opportunity for us. For years, first as a journalist, then député national, vou are committed to us and to our cumbrellayour to defend and promote the cause of press freedom. The time has therefore come to take action, so that our projects and ambitions become realities.». this is the challenge for journalists.
However, JED recognized that it is more urgent to promote quality journalism, and to save this profession which is disappearing in our country. «C‘is here also the place to underline, that to cumbrellaDue to this social and civic responsibility of the journalist, journalism is a profession that has rules and requirements; which obeys an ethic and deontology. No freedom of the press, in any democracy, allows any journalist of any kind to incite hatred, call for civil disobedience or endanger the lives of others. Now is the time, and more than time, to put professionalism back at the heart of the profession of informing so that the beggar journalism and militant journalism in the permanent search, not for information, but for buzz, disappear from the Congolese media landscape. and fame in social networks», said Tchivis Tshivuadi, secretary general of JED, bluntly.
And to hammer: «It is together, Mr. Minister, in the spirit and the Dynamics of Zongo, that we must mobilize to clean up our profession, and put out of harm’s way to those whom the President of the Republic recently qualified of ‘’Nicknames-Journalists’’. They know each other and they will recognize. They are the real ones ‘’black sheep’’ in suits and ties that swarm and pollute our noble profession».
A good bed that Tshivis Tshivuadi has prepared for Patrick Muyaya who avoids his having to face the challenge alone. It is reciprocal. “Help me protect you with your professionalism. Faced with the threats that may hang over the freedom of journalists and the media, only professionalism remains the shield. I will personally ensure, during my visit, to promote the exercise of freedom of expression in strict compliance with the laws of the Republic to contribute to the development of a responsible, ethical and professional journalist ”, at the same time he asked and promised before declaring himself “Minister of Speech, but who will be above all the Minister of Listening.”
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