Journalist Tatiana Osango assaulted after interview criticizing DRC president

Seven men used glass bottles to hit Osango, a reporter who presents a political program on the privately owned YouTube-based news channel Réaco News, on her mouth and leg at a restaurant in the capital, Kinshasa, according to multiple news reports and the journalist who spoke to CPJ. Osango told CPJ that the men said they were members of Forces of Progress, an informal youth group claiming to be associated with the ruling party Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS). The assailants said they were acting on the orders of UDPS’s Secretary General Augustin Kabuya and were beating her because of her criticism of DRC President Felix Tshisekedi in an interview she hosted earlier that day with opposition politician India Omari. Osango told CPJ that the interview with Omari focused on political developments and was critical of Tshisekedi’s proposals to amend DRC’s constitution. Osango was treated at a hospital in Kinshasa for a broken tooth, which had to be extracted, and injuries to her leg. She currently walks with a crutch. https://cpj.org/2024/06/journalist-tatiana-osango-assaulted-after-interview-criticizing-drc-president/