DRC: As Ebola resurfaces in Ituri, RSF and its partner Congo Check strengthen the capacity of more than 60 journalists to ensure reliable reporting on the outbreak

"Covering this public health crisis is a new experience for many journalists. They lack training on how to protect themselves while reporting in the field, how to disinfect their equipment and to speak about the stress they face everyday," explains Fiston Mahamba, a journalist and trainer with the Congolese fact-checking and anti-disinformation organisation Congo Check. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is currently facing a new Ebola virus disease outbreak and the epicentre is in Ituri province, a region already plagued by chronic insecurity.

At the same time, the spread of rumours and disinformation is fuelling public distrust of the health authorities. On TikTok, especially, videos making false claims about the disease are multiplying. The trumped-up narratives include: the virus is transmitted to children through vaccines, healthcare workers inflate infection figures to receive more funding for the response, Ebola is an invention of Western countries, and so on..

In response to these challenges, RSF helped support its partner Congo Check in equipping around 60 journalists through three training sessions held from 3 to 9 July 2026 in the Ituri municipalities of Bunia, Mongbwalu and Nyakunde.

The participants received training on field safety measures, such as which precautions to take while reporting and how to disinfect their equipment, fact-checking techniques to combat disinformation and how to manage stress while covering the outbreak. Following the training sessions, awareness-raising content - including podcasts, infographics and short videos - will be broadcast in local languages for several weeks, particularly through partner radio stations.

"As journalists, we lacked information ourselves, including the different terminology to use when describing health-related disinformation," said Esther Hanyie, a presenter at Radio Télévision Évangile et Réconciliation (RTER) in Nyakunde.

The station's deputy editor-in-chief, Jean de Dieu Bila Gasanya, added that he had learned "practical techniques to decipher and understand how information is manipulated, and how it can cause enormous harm within communities." "I am committed to sharing this knowledge with the listeners of my radio station," he concluded.

Joël Heri Budjo, a journalist based in Bunia working for the news websites VisibilitéMediaPro.CD and CongoRassure.CD, said the training enabled him to "adopt a more ethical approach, better protect interviewees, handle information more responsibly and produce reliable content that helps inform the public without fuelling fear or stigma."