The Audiovisual Royalty (RAV) is established by law n° 16-2001 of December 31, 2001 to provide financial assistance to state media in addition to their operating budget. The resources of this tax come from the levy on each electricity bill of the sum of 1000 FCFA.

At the time, information and communication professionals welcomed the willingness of the public authorities to provide this aid to the media. Unfortunately, the rights holders testify today that they receive it sporadically while the collection operation is carried out regularly by the Public Treasury.

For their part, the journalists who wanted this aid to be extended to other communication sub-sectors note with bitterness that twenty years later, things do not seem to be moving positively. It is for this reason that the participants in the 2015 Congolese press meetings had recommended that the public authorities create the conditions for the private press to also benefit from the financial subsidy of the State.

This recommendation has remained a dead letter while private press companies are disappearing one after the other, for lack of financial means. The Superior Council for Freedom of Communication (CSLC) announced on May 3, during the celebration of World Press Freedom Day, that nearly fifteen newspapers have shut down this year!

For its part, the Association of Press Editors of the Congo very recently formulated, in a statement, proposals to the government, parliament and civil society to urge them not only to get involved in the process of handing over the RAV to the CSLC, as provided for by law, but also to its extension to private press organs.