SECTOR 1 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: 2.9 1.8 Public information is easily accessible, guaranteed by law, to all citizens. Even though provisions made by Article 11 in the 1996 Law, clearly indicates that – a journalist is free to access all sources of information except in cases highlighted by the law – access to public information is not easy, neither for journalists nor for citizens. There is no law that guarantees (access to) public information to citizens and journalists. The Military Penal Code in its articles 149 and 150 protects certain information1. Moreover, there are some discriminatory practices that exist from the side of the government and administrative officials towards media bodies. Some government press conferences are generally only accessible to media closely aligned to power, e.g. the Minister of Communication’s press conference held on 18 May 2012. Over-zealous officials remain a significant obstacle to the access to information. A culture of secrecy prevails that surrounds the State budget, the salary of the President of the Republic and the members of government, and even simple civic information such as the Law on Declaration of Assets of members of the government. Civil society applied pressure on the Budget Ministry in order to compel it to get its website to go live. Updates for this site, however, are not done on a regular 1 Article 149 states that “According to this law the nature of national security, information, procedures, facts, objects, documents, computerised data or files involving national security that have been subject to measures to limit their dissemination, is defined. Information, procedures, objects, documents, computerised data or files classified by the Ministry of Defence or the Supreme Commander and the disclosure of these being of such consequence that it may threaten national defence or to lead to the discovery of a military secret, can be subjected to these measures.” Article 150 punishes “those who fall guilty of disclosing information referred to in article 149” with up to 20 years of imprisonment in times of peace. When it occurs inside a war zone, a stronger sentence is applied, notably the death sentence. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER Democratic Republic of Congo 81