DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Newspaper director released on bail after five days of detention

 UPDATE 

May 11, 2007
Original Alert: May 10, 2007

Jean Pierre Phambu Lutete, La Tolérance
IMPRISONED

Lutete, director of the private bi-weekly La Tolérance, was provisionally released by a court in the capital Kinshasa after the Observatory of Congolese Media, a media self-regulatory organization, paid a bail equivalent to US$50, he later told CPJ.

Police arrested the journalist on extortion charges after an official he sought comments from allegedly mistook Lutete for a phony intermediary who was threatening her, he said. He had remained in jail even after the official dropped the complaint.