VZCZCXRO7638
RR RUEHMA
DE RUEHKI #1058/01 1841018
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 031018Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4281
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1111
INFO RUEHMA/AMEMBASSY MALABO
RUEHYD/AMEMBASSY YAOUNDE 0196
RUEHSB/AMEMBASSY HARARE 1378
RUEHAN/AMEMBASSY ANTANANARIVO 0015
RUEHPL/AMEMBASSY PORT LOUIS 0029

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 001058 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/PDPA, IIP/G/AF 
PARIS FOR AFRICA REGIONAL SERVICES 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O.12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM CG KDEM KPAO
SUBJECT: ARS AND VOA SPEAKERS EMPOWER 200 MORE JOURNALISTS IN DRC 
 
REF: KINSHASA 225 (NOTAL) 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: Crisscrossing the Congo in April and June, ahead of 
historic elections July 30, VOA Chief Editor (Central Africa French 
service) Ferdinand Ferella, and ARS Speaker Eduardo Cue held seven 
workshops in five cities, for a total of 200 radio and television 
journalists. PAO accompanied them. Sixty other journalists 
participated in similar workshops in February, those too under the 
tutelage of Eduardo Cue. In their own way, both speakers sought to 
give Congolese journalists tips to ensure their credibility, give 
voice to the public, and bolster their courage to ask uncomfortable 
questions of those who seek to govern. The pre-election period is an 
ideal opportunity, they said, for journalists responsibly to exert 
their freedoms.  If they failed, Cue contended, Congolese democracy, 
too, would fail.  End Summary 
 
Cue: Inconvenient Truths 
------------------------ 
 
¶2. (U) As in February, when he held forth at workshops organized by 
PD in Kinshasa (reftel), Eduardo Cue, the Paris-based correspondent 
for U.S. News and World Report (which recently featured an article 
by Cue on Zimbabwe), used theoretical, ethical and practical lessons 
and examples to make powerful points about the importance of press 
credibility in covering the July 30, and subsequent, elections. This 
time, PD took his presentation on the road, to Lubumbashi (June 15) 
and Kananga (June 17-18), finishing up with a workshop in Kinshasa 
(June 20). 
 
¶3. (U) With the Society of Professional Journalists ethics code in 
hand, Eduardo Cue addressed corrupt practices in journalism, warning 
against conflicts of interest.  This is a particularly hard message 
for underpaid Congolese journalists, who survive on payments from 
those seeking favorable press treatment (known here as "coupage"), 
and/or for journalists who moonlight as press attaches for 
government ministries or political parties. 
 
¶4. (U) There was a stunned silence among the 38 participants in 
Kananga when Cue asserted that "coupage" and other ethical 
transgressions by reporters could actually destroy the DRC's nascent 
democracy and usher in renewed conflict.  Cue reasoned that if the 
coming elections are perceived as lacking integrity, then political 
instability and worse could follow.  Slanted, tendentious, and 
irresponsible reporting, deriving often from conflicts of interest, 
could simply rob the elections of their credibility, he concluded. 
Eduardo Cue had the same jaw-dropping reaction in Lubumbashi when he 
told the 35 reporters at the workshop that many were working hard 
for honest elections, but not journalists, yet their role was 
perhaps the most important in a successful transition to democracy. 
 
¶5.  The good news, Eduardo Cue said, is that journalists have more 
power than they realize to make a stand for press freedom, a sine 
qua non of democracy, and this election period affords a prime 
opportunity. In Kananga and Kinshasa, Cue cited the example of a 
commercial radio station journalist in Lubumbashi, our first stop, 
who told the workshop that the second time the Congolese 
intelligence service (ANR) threatened her and seized her equipment, 
her station took the incident on the air. The ANR returned her 
equipment.  While most such encounters will not have such felicitous 
outcomes, Cue said that this case proved that a stand could be 
made. 
 
¶6.  Armed with credibility and professionalism, the reporter must 
then assert his or her independence by, at times, going against 
accepted wisdom, said Cue.  Reporters must have the courage to raise 
uncomfortable and inconvenient questions. Eduardo Cue lamented that 
the American media failed in this regard between 9/11 and the Iraq 
war.  By not putting Western journalism on a pedestal, Eduardo Cue 
made his high standards more accessible to the Congolese 
journalists. 
 
Lead, Angle, Close: Practical Advice 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶7.  Using reports prepared in advance by the participants, both 
Eduardo Cue and Ferdinand Ferella plunged into the techniques of 
radio reporting.  Ferella encouraged journalists in Kinshasa (April 
22, 24), Kisangani (April 26), and Goma (April 28) - who eagerly 
crammed ideas and sound bites into their 90-second reports - to 
develop one central message, avoid beginning with background 
material, avoid adages and clichs, and (especially in radio) use 
economy of words.  Cue exhorted each journalist to have a clear idea 
about what he or she wanted to know (Savoir ce qu'on veut savoir). 
Ferella and Cue both lectured on interview techniques.  Both also 
 
KINSHASA 00001058  002 OF 002 
 
 
stressed that, in radio reporting, the container has to be as 
important as the contents.  That is, if lead, angle, sources, and 
close are not well done, the audience will not listen or not 
remember.  In a very practical vein, Cue underscored the importance 
of putting partial election results in proper perspective, to avoid 
having a final counting reversal become a pretext for contesting the 
results. 
 
¶8.  Ferdinand Ferella held a special workshop with RAGA radio and 
television personnel, given the VOA's rebroadcast arrangement with 
RAGA.  With Congolese press credentials, Ferella also prepared 
stories for VOA on "coupage" and on candidates recruiting children 
to stage rallies or other demonstrations.  Ferella, who was the only 
international correspondent to report directly from Kisangani while 
war raged in the city during the late 90s, and whose daily VOA 
broadcasts are heard in the DRC, was given a certificate of 
appreciation by a civic organization when in Kisangani this time. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶9.  Given the stakes of the July 30 democratic elections in the DRC, 
this large country's first in more than 40 years, these workshops 
were perhaps the most important he had ever held, according to one 
of our speakers.  To be sure, journalistic professionalism in the 
DRC will stay very uneven for a long time, "coupage" will continue 
to corrupt, and criminal defamation laws will continue to intimidate 
journalists.  Still, when combined with similar efforts undertaken 
by other international donors (notably, DFID, France, Belgium, UNDP, 
EU), Congolese journalists increasingly know that they have the 
power to do more than parrot, or hand the microphone over to, 
political leaders, and the responsibility to inform the voter. 
 
 
 
 
 
MEECE