{"id":56438,"date":"2015-10-21T11:28:16","date_gmt":"2015-10-21T09:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/2015\/10\/congo-brazzaville-restraint-needed-as-protesters-clash-with-security-forces\/"},"modified":"2015-10-21T11:28:16","modified_gmt":"2015-10-21T09:28:16","slug":"congo-brazzaville-restraint-needed-as-protesters-clash-with-security-forces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/congo-brazzaville-restraint-needed-as-protesters-clash-with-security-forces\/","title":{"rendered":"Congo Brazzaville: Restraint needed as protesters clash with security forces"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                        <span dir=\"ltr\"><br \/>\n                                                    LONDON, United Kingdom, October 21, 2015\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ &#8212;<br \/>\n                                                <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Security forces in the Republic of Congo must refrain from using excessive force against protesters, Amnesty International said today.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Five people are reported to have been killed among reports that the police used live ammunition against protesters who gathered to demonstrate against the proposed changes to the country\u2019s constitution ahead of Sunday\u2019s referendum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA heavy-handed response by security forces not only violates the protesters\u2019 rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, but may enflame an already tense situation,\u201d said Ilaria Allegrozzi, Amnesty International Central Africa researcher.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe use of force and the deaths of protesters must be independently, impartially and effectively investigated and if there are grounds to suspect individuals of criminal responsibility they must be brought to justice.\u201d<br \/>\nMedia freedom is also under threat with mobile Internet services, text messaging and the signal of some radio stations cut in Brazzaville.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShutting down communication networks and radio signals is a clear and unjustified attack on media freedom,\u201d said Ilaria Allegrozzi.<br \/>\n\u201cAuthorities must ensure that journalists are able to carry out their work without fear, free from intimidation and harassment.\u201d<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LONDON, United Kingdom, October 21, 2015\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ &#8212; Security forces in the Republic of Congo must refrain from using excessive force against protesters, Amnesty International said today. Five people are reported to have been killed among reports that the police used live ammunition against protesters who gathered to demonstrate against the proposed changes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[428,4585,830],"class_list":{"0":"post-56438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-africa","8":"tag-apo","9":"tag-news","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}