Investigative Journalism

Congolese Eric Mwamba is a freelance journalist. He and colleagues, some of whom worked on Le Rebond newspaper, were distressed by what they saw as the hypocrisy of their government, which came to power denouncing the corruption of the previous regime, but rapidly became embroiled in scandals of its own. Here, he tells the story of his paper’s efforts to reveal what was going on.

Why did you do this investigation?

The need to do this article arose from our wish to clarify the duplicity in the political discourse of our country’s leaders – actually of all politicians, whether in opposition or in power. Jean-Jacques Rousseau said it already: “Politics is neither religion nor morality”. We saw a need to enable the people, often illiterate and naive, to understand the vast difference between electoral promises and the actual exercise of power.

We are now led by an elite who for 30 years took great pains to denounce corruption, fraud, bad governance, political assassinations and the force-feeding of an official ideology, with the objective of achieving a democratic alternative. In opposition, these people claimed that if they were elected they would lead the way towards the collective well-being that people craved.

But only seven years after these ‘socialists’ obtained supreme power, they are at the centre of financial scandals and with personal wealth estimated in billions, whilst the people’s misery has become intolerable.

How did you tackle the story?

In order to get to the bottom of the rumours, colleague Paul Arnaud Digbeu investigated the bank accounts of the men and women in power. He compiled a list of 38 names and published the list in an article titled “The FPI’s 38 billionnaires”. (Le Rebond no. 203 of 12/09/2007) The FPI is the Front Populaire Ivoirien, the party of President Laurent Gbagbo.

What happened after you published?

The amounts found were so high that everybody was asking if it was really possible for these individuals to have amassed such riches in such a short space of time, and many even doubted the veracity of (Digbeu’s) report on that basis. After the publication, Le Rebond was charged with “insult to the Head of State” by chief prosecutor Raymond Tchimou, and was also hit with a civilian charge for “defamation” by a parliamentarian close to the presidential couple, joined for the occasion by the first lady herself.

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