Thierry Michel

Abuja, Nigeria, July 10, 2012--A Belgian journalist who released a critical documentary on the murder of a human rights activist was denied entry into the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Sunday. The Committee to Protect Journalists denounces the country's decision to block Thierry Michel entry into the country for what seems to be an attempt to silence critical journalism.

Who killed Floribert Chebeya, the president of the leading DRC human rights group La Voix des Sans Voix, and his driver, Fidèle Bazana, in June 2010 in Kinshasa? A few runaway police officers, according to the military tribunal that judged the case and issued its sentences one year later. A few bad apples, who acted on their own, without any order from their hierarchy.