My recent trip to Eastern DRC, to work with the journalists who report for Face à la Justice, has been all together an incredible experience. Drained by energy-consuming months of work in The Hague, with low internet connection and shitty phone lines in DRC allowing only sporadic contacts with journalists on the ground, I was craving real tangible, human interaction with these journalists I only knew by names and voices. Meeting them was not only professionally much needed, it was also personally a deep breath of fresh air, a slap on the face and a heart-warming experience.

As I explained in a previous blog post written before I left for Goma, Face à la Justice (FAJ) works with a female-only team of reporters, except for Charles, the presenter. There are two main reasons for that. First, the funding coming from donors is often directed at trainings around the issue of sexual violence. Second, we believe that supporting women development is in itself working towards peace in Eastern DRC. I realized before my trip that there must be some issues for a woman working as a journalist in North and South Kivu, but the extent of it, I could never have imagined.

The obvious: working as a journalist in DRC is dangerous. The threat is ubiquitous although impalpable as it does not come directly from government policy, but rather emanate from the situation of insecurity that crystallizes around people who try to substitute the rule of law and democracy to the current chaos. When do you actually cross the line and who is it that will actually go after you is unclear, but reporters are constantly aware of the threat hanging in the air. Being a journalist also means you have to travel more, exposing you to dangers you would not normally face, as Charles found out little over a year ago on an assignment. He was captured by Mai Mai militias and just about made it alive (read the crazy story here!).

Moreover journalists are look down at and have a reputation of tinkers. In fact, they are nicknamed les quados, a pejorative term designating the men repairing tires on the side of the road. I was explained that the general distrust against journalists comes from the late 1990s, when most media were taking bribes from different sides of the conflict and reporters were “tinkering” with facts to please whoever was paying the most.

But the journalists I work with accumulate the extra difficulty of being women. They were brought up to stay at home, cook, take care of the children, be humble and shy. Not exactly the main journalist’s qualities. So the women who actually made it into journalism are real characters who had to fight their way against what society expected from them and still have to fight these prejudices every day at work. Not to mention they still have to take care of the kids when they go home.

I have immense admiration for them and they are, every time I feel frustrated now that I am back in The Hague, my inspiration to keep going. And believe me, the frustration has come back as fast as the internet connection is slow in Goma.

Immaculée Birhaheka, the founder of Promotion and Support of Women’s Initiatives (PAIF), came to talk about women equality and sexual violence during the week-long training organised for the FAJ journalists. Here is an excerpt of what she said:

“Every woman is marginalized in DRC. You too are marginalized, although educated and practicing a rather masculine profession. It is a great battle for us, women in DRC. Every woman of every social strata have the same problem: social status. But when you fight for your rights, you must not be ashamed. On radio, we hear women who apologize to their husband because they were raped. Is it their fault? Of course not. But they are regarded as « prostitutes » (NB: In DRC, the notion of « prostitute » is rather broad and often encompasses the totality of women who sleep with a man who is not their husband). It must change. Mentalities must change and women are the first who need to change their mentalities because too often, they reject those who have been raped. There are 50% of women victims of rape in Eastern DRC, the other 50% must help them to reintegrate in society. When a woman is raped, it is all the women who are raped. We must be united.
Mentalities must be changed upstream, in order for the sexual violence to stop. But it must be changed downstream as well, in order for the psychological violence suffered by women victims of rape also cease. Congolese journalists are often prejudiced against women who were raped. They don’t do investigations and lack professionalism regarding those issues. But it is for journalists to bring messages of peace and change. The way they report information is the way information is assimilated by the audience. If the local media do not change their approach, the mentalities in the population will not change. I encourage and applaud initiative like this program, which employs female journalists and make them think about prejudices and the issue of sexual violence”.