Rising emergency support requests from trans journalists in eastern DRC

In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), violence against journalists and violence against LGBTQI+ communities are colliding in devastating ways. As armed groups continue to fight for control in North and South Kivu, queer journalists are being targeted both for who they are and for the work they do.

According to him, the wider climate for journalists in the region is already extremely dangerous. Armed actors including the M23-militia and the Congolese military see independent reporting as a threat because journalists continue documenting atrocities committed by all sides.“They go out of their way to silence these journalists,” he explains.

The escalation of violence over the past year has dramatically worsened the risks facing queer journalists. According to Annez de Taboada, the fall of major cities to M23 forces triggered a sharp rise in reported cases of sexual violence against women, children and LGBTQI+ people. Free Press Unlimited has received a significant increase in emergency support requests from LGBTQI+ journalists in the region. Many of those cases involve trans women.

Evacuation across the border

In the past six months, Free Press Unlimited evacuated three journalists from eastern Congo to neighbouring Burundi. The organisation helps journalists arrange legal documents, transport and temporary living support. “And after that we don’t have the money to do more than that. But these people are still in need. Three months are not enough to fix their problems and start a new life.”

Burundi is often the closest option geographically, but safety there is far from guaranteed. “There aren’t any countries close by where queer people are safe to flee to,” he says. Many journalists end up in informal housing. During their journeys, they often hide their identities for safety.

One case involved a trans woman journalist from Uvira who had been reporting on M23 movements through her media outlet’s Facebook page. After her house was broken into and her equipment stolen, she was raped a week later. Most people don’t publish about M23 because they want to survive. So the people that do, stand out”, says Annez de Taboada.

She fled to Burundi in December with support from Free Press Unlimited. “That area is a checkpoint nightmare,” he says. “Every road has a road block. You have to pay your way through every road block.” Free Press Unlimited provided financial support to help her pass through the checkpoints and reach safety. Once in Burundi, she went into hiding. “The last time we spoke she was in Burundi,” says Annez de Taboada. “It’s hard for us to have daily contact with them when they go into hiding.”

Risks

Queer journalists in DRC risk rape being used as a form of punishment and “correction”: deliberately traumatizing them against their identity, to become hetero and cis-gender. At the same time, journalists face targeted repression linked directly to their reporting. Annez de Taboada lists illegal searches of offices, seizure of equipment, online harassment, death threats and public outing campaigns among the risks queer journalists encounter.

In the last 10, 20 years, queer communities and journalists in parts of Eastern Congo had managed to carve out limited but meaningful spaces for themselves in a country where that was not common at all. According to Free Press Unlimited’s local partners, parts of North and South Kivu had seen the emergence of small queer organisations and media initiatives over the past two decades.

“For us that was something to celebrate,” he says. These spaces remained fragile, but they allowed some journalists to report on LGBTQI+ issues, because other media outlets deliberately ignore because of stigmatization. That environment has now collapsed.

“What we learn from our partners is that in and around Kivu, and specifically in cities like Uvira, there is not a single article, piece of media content that has been produced about the LGBTQI+ community at least since the beginning of the year. There is complete silence.” The silence, he says, is driven by fear. Journalists have gone into hiding, fled the region, or stopped reporting altogether in order to survive.