Publics in Africa in a Digital Age by Sharath Srinivasan

Author:Sharath Srinivasan [Srinivasan, Sharath]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367715267
Google: uF1WzgEACAAJ
Goodreads: 57498588
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2021-09-07T00:00:00+00:00

Media in Rwanda: from ‘hate media’ to a ‘freer’ internet

No discussion of media in Rwanda can overlook the role of radio stations and extremist magazines – the country’s so-called ‘hate media’ – in inciting violence during the 1994 genocide against Tutsi.13 The most notorious example of this was undoubtedly the extremist radio station Radio-Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM). Broadcasting between July 1993 and October 1994, the station both heightened ethnic tensions prior to the genocide and encouraged Rwandans to participate in the violence while it was unfolding.14 In the aftermath of the genocide, a number of media owners and producers were tried before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). In 2003, the so-called ‘media’ judgement found three journalists guilty of inciting genocide and crimes against humanity, among other crimes.15

Given this legacy, in the post-genocide period the new Rwandan government was wary of liberalising the media. It was only in 2002 that the country’s airwaves were opened up to privatisation. Yet even this opening was made with an eye to the past: the same law that allowed for privatisation also called for the formation of an independent body to regulate the media, the High Council of the Press (HCP), which was later renamed the Media High Council (MHC) in 2009.16 Nevertheless, the result was a flourishing of private radio stations, with more than 20 given broadcasting licenses between 2004 and 2006.17 This opening of the airwaves sparked the (re)development of the local music scene, and young Rwandans began recording pop, R&B, Afropop, and later hip hop songs that became extremely popular with local audiences.

While the popular music industry – and the entertainment industry more broadly – has taken off since 2008, this does not mean we should consider the country’s media as ‘free’. NGOs and human rights groups routinely criticise Rwanda for its lack of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.18 Although a revised Media Law (Law N°02/2013) was adopted in March 2013 that seemed to promise greater independence for journalists – for example, through the creation of the Rwanda Media Commission (RMC), a self-regulatory body which took over media regulation from the MHC – the media remains ‘heavily dominated by pro-government views’.19 In June 2015 the Rwandan government indefinitely banned the BBC’s Kinyarwanda service due to a controversial television documentary, ‘Rwanda, The Untold Story’, which had aired on BBC2 in October 2014.20 In the aftermath, three BBC websites were also blocked.21

There is some evidence, however, that this stifling of the press is less enforced online. Although certain websites associated with exiled opposition groups are blocked, this does not extend to social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. In a recent article comparing the development of the Internet in Ethiopia and Rwanda, Gagliardone and Golooba-Mutebi suggest that the Rwandan government, unlike its Ethiopia counterpart, has developed a more or less ‘open’ approach to the Internet.22 While this may be true in theory, Gagliardone and Golooba-Mutebi do not consider the prevalence of self-censorship or the fact that those who criticise the government face online threats and intimidation.

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