Rwanda

The Media Foundation for West Africa recalls the deadly role played by the media in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and urges journalists to report responsibly and refrain from spreading hate speech.

Cassien Ntamuhanga, who ran Amazing Grace radio, was convicted of forming a criminal gang, conspiracy against the established government or president, complicity in a terrorist act and conspiracy to murder.

The Rwanda Media Commission (RMC) has been subjected to an online smear campaign for objecting to the suspension of the BBC’s Kinyarwanda-language broadcasts on 25 October.

A parliamentary motion to ban the BBC in Rwanda was prompted by a controversial documentary about the 1994 genocide.

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, who is giving a speech at London’s Chatham House today, is viewed by his admirers as the man who saved the nation. But Rwanda under Kagame has no tolerance for dissent or political opposition.

Agnès Uwimana Nkusi was freed on 18 June after completing a four-year sentence on charges including “harming state security” that were prompted by her reporting.

How Western media coverage failed Rwanda and contributed to international indifference and inaction.

“Repression Across Borders” illustrates the persistence of attacks on Rwandan opponents and critics in exile, spanning the period of 1996 to 2014. The most recent case was the murder of Patrick Karegeya, a prominent Rwandan dissident who was found dead in Johannesburg, South Africa, on January 1, 2014.

Official investigations into the murder of Gustave Makonene, coordinator of Transparency International Rwanda’s Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre, appear to have ground to a halt six months later. As part of his work for Transparency International, Makonene had handled allegations of corruption, some of which reportedly involved members of the police.

Timothy Spence, IPI Senior Press Freedom Advisor, speaks with Rwandan journalist Fred Muvunyi. Muvunyi became the first head of the new Rwanda Media Commission, a seven-member self-regulatory body.

People believed to be favorable to the government have taken over the Rwandan League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights. The organization, known as LIPRODHOR, is the country’s last effective human rights group.

Stanley Gatera is serving a one-year prison sentence for an opinion piece that he did not write. The piece suggests that men might regret marrying an ethnic Tutsi woman solely for her beauty.

ARTICLE 19 notes that a media law adopted in Rwanda on 11 March provides some safeguards for freedom of the press, but contains too many provisions which pose a threat to journalists.

A comprehensive access to information law came into effect in Rwanda on 11 March. Its passage makes Rwanda the 11th African country with a right to information law.

Stanley Gatera has been sentenced to a one-year jail term and fines of 30,000 Rwandan francs (US$50) for inciting divisionism and gender discrimination in an opinion column.

The guilty verdict in the case of Rwandan opposition party leader Victoire Ingabire is the culmination of a flawed trial that included politically motivated charges, Human Rights Watch said today.