Life and death in the Congo-Brazzaville media
Congolese political changes of the early 1990s as a result of movements rejecting single-party regimes favor the reintroduction of multiparty politics, the emergence of a new private press and the "awakening" of the Dean of the Congolese private press La Semaine Africaine, the only independent title of the government from the Episcopal Conference of Congo. Created for the most part by political parties born recently, private securities, very politically committed, enjoy an unprecedented freedom of expression. They criticize openly the current regime. They require the establishment of democracy and the rule of a state of law. They thus contribute to the emergence of a new public space even if the content of the vast majority of newspapers broadcast is mainly propaganda for those political parties funding them. Very quickly, the democratic process jams because of impulses back from military authoritarianism, and very conflicting identity issues between the main political leaders for conservation or the conquest of power. The weakness of the political culture of the ruling class leads to multiple political crises and non-compliance with individual and fundamental freedoms. Illegal creation of private militias by political parties favors repeatedly violence during which the press takes or not position as a social actor. Against a backdrop of seething sociopolitical environment, we attempt to analyze the contribution of the private press in general and La Semaine Africaine in particular, into the emergence of the expression of opinions within the Congolese society, through the establishment of actual terms of public debate.