SECTOR 1 1.5 Print publications are not required to obtain permission to publish from state authorities. All newspapers require to publish as a bon de diffusion – a paper that serves as proof that the publication has been declared at the state counsel’s office. However, there are administrative formalities that must be fulfilled to make the declaration valid: Art 35 of the “Freedom of Communication and Media Law”. And, even though the bon de diffusion represents some kind of authorisation, it is widely viewed as not constituting a repressive requirement. Congo has also abolished its censorship law, which required a public official to validate a publication before it went to press. As a result, the newspaper industry is flourishing numerically. There are believed to be more than 50 newspapers officially exiting in the country, most of them serving Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire, the major cities. Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 4.8 1.6 Confidential sources of information are protected by law and/or the courts. Congolese media law is rather contradictory on the protection of sources. Article 99 of the “Freedom of Information and Communication Law” states that “the protection of sources of information is guaranteed”. But this guarantee could be retrieved by Article 227 of the same law. The latter article requires journalists to produce “witnesses” during a libel defence, otherwise their reporting is considered their own invention. Legal experts warn that broadly defined, such witnesses could include confidential sources. In several cases, journalists have indeed been forced to produce their sources to testify in chambers. In a few known cases, sources opted to come forward to help journalists’ defence. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO 2013 79