Africa

Rwanda

{This graph represents scores that have been modified by CIMA so that higher scores indicate a better media situation. It is intended to show trends over time; each index measures significantly different factors of press freedom. To see an explanation for how this graph was created, click here.}
 

IREX Description:

Media development in Rwanda remains haunted by the events of 1994. Government officials frequently argue against giving the media complete freedom, for fear that it may be used irresponsibly and lead to chaos, as when Hutu extremists used Radio-Television Libre des Milles Collines to broadcast hate speech. Observers blamed the broadcasts for instigating the genocide 16 years ago in which more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered. Therefore, while the authorities have supported new training efforts and improvements in the legal structure underpinning the media, they keep close watch over the media.

Last year's MSI panelists expressed hope that a proposed new media bill would be passed, and in fact, President Paul Kagame signed the bill into law in August 2009. Thanks to participation from journalists, the law includes provisions considered relatively fair compared to its predecessor. The new law amends an article that required journalists to secure official permission prior to publishing government information. Journalists may now collect and disseminate information freely, and need to seek permission only when using copyrighted material. Still, the new law is not without controversy. Some members of the media community argue that the new law has been passed to suppress press freedom and it targets the independent media, which is seen as critical to the government. The state, for its part, rejects these charges.

Panelists stressed that total press freedom is a long way from being realized, especially while other laws under the penal code still threaten media freedoms.

Read more on IREX’s site…

Rwanda’s 1994 genocide ravaged the skilled workforce and almost completely destroyed the already poor telecommunications infrastructure, leaving only a handful of telephone lines operational.1 By 1996, when the state-owned provider Rwandatel first introduced the internet to Rwanda, approximately 1,000 lines were functioning.2 Mobile phones arrived in 1998, but the usage rate in the first years of access was very low.3 Since 2000, however, there has been an increase in fixed lines, mobile phones, computers, and technicians in the country. The number of internet users rose from 5,000 in 2000 to 450,000 in 2010, though this is still only 4 percent of the population.4 More significantly, the number of mobile-phone subscribers grew from only 39,000 in 2000 to over 3 million by 2010, accounting for over a third of the population.

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Top Developments
• Government drives Kinyarwanda- language papers out of print before presidential vote.
• Critical newspaper editor assassinated. Skepticism greets police investigation.

Key Statistic
93: Percentage of vote taken by incumbent Paul Kagame in presidential election. He faced no credible opposition.

Before a crowd of thousands in Kigali, just days before he was re-elected in August in a virtually uncontested race, President Paul Kagame declared that "those who give our country a bad image can take a rope and hang themselves," the BBC reported. Kagame's antagonism toward critics guided his administration's approach to the press throughout the election year. The government shut the nation's two leading independent weeklies in April, silenced several other news outlets in the weeks before the vote, and harassed critical editors in court. In the most startling development, the acting editor of the independent weekly Umuvugizi, Jean-Léonard Rugambage, was gunned down outside his Kigali home in what appeared to be a planned assassination. Police immediately labeled the killing a reprisal for the editor's supposed involvement in the 1994 genocide, a conclusion that was greeted with deep skepticism from journalists. 
 

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