Jeremias Kaboco,

Gender: Male
Video Journalist

Kaboco told CPJ the officers forced him into a police van, despite identifying himself as a journalist; he added that he was not demonstrating. His press identification was displayed on his chest, he said, and he was carrying a professional camera. Kaboco reports for Wizi-Kongo, which covers general news from the region, according to the journalist and CPJ’s review of the site. Eleven teachers were also taken into custody, Kaboco told CPJ, adding that the police reacted as though the protesters were dangerous criminals. “They drove past once to assess the situation and returned shooting rubber bullets and tear gas at all of us,” he said. Kaboco and the teachers were forced to lie on the floor of the open police van and curl up uncomfortably under a bench where the officers were seated, he said. It was difficult to breathe under those circumstances, especially since he was wearing a mask to protect from COVID-19, the journalist said. After the officers drove around for about 40 minutes looking for more demonstrators, Kaboco and the teachers were taken to the local police station to be processed, he said. During the trip, the officers shouted at Kaboco and threatened to beat him and throw him in a cell if he resisted in any way, he said, adding, “It was a day of terror I had never witnessed.” The police briefly confiscated Kaboco’s phone and camera, but did not erase any content, the journalist said. He was at the police station for about two hours until a fellow journalist, Moniz Francisco, a local correspondent for the U.S. Congress-funded Voice of America, arrived with a lawyer to help get him released, said Kaboco. He was let go without signing any release documents and without any explanation, he said.

Read More...