According to local reports, Heritier Magayane, 26 “was killed in the Bunyangula neighbourhood about 70 Km from Goma Town, in Rutshuru territory of North Kivu Province. He had earlier received a call from someone asking to meet him and was killed after reaching the venue”. The killers took away his mobile phone.
Heritier Magayane was the popular host of a youth programme which consistently called on the youth to embrace peace, in a region that has become so volatile with numerous armed groups. Many believed that Magayane was killed because of his journalistic work.
The National Union of the Congolese Press (UNPC), an IFJ affiliate, in a press statement demanded that the government should conduct a serious investigation in order to apprehend and punish the killers. “UNPC condemns this heinous act perpetrated against a journalist who was simply doing his job and calls on public authorities to protect media professionals in the exercise of their noble duties”.
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said: "Impunity must not be allowed to embolden those who use violence to stop journalists from doing their job".
IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger called the killing a direct attack on media freedom and a calculated attempt to silence the media reports on the atrocities being committed in the region. “The world can no longer accept the killing of journalists with impunity. Those who commit these heinous crimes must be exposed and brought to justice”.