Freedom of the Press 2008 - Rwanda

Status: Not Free
Legal Environment: 24 (of 30)
Political Environment: 34 (of 40)
Economic Environment: 26 (of 30)
Total Score: 84 (of 100)
(Lower scores = freer)

Rwanda has seen many improvements since the end of the 1994 genocide, but freedom of speech is not one of them. In 2007, the Rwandan media remained pinned down by constant government attacks on and illegal imprisonment of journalist who wrote openly and critically about government officials. While the constitution provides for freedom of the press "in conditions prescribed by the law," the government regularly restricted the ability of the independent media to operate, often invoking the role that certain radio stations played in the 1994 genocide. A law passed in 2002 guarantees media independence by formally forbidding censorship, but for all intents and purposes this is void in practice. Libel is still a criminal offense. In June the Minister of Information revoked the license of The Weekly Post, a new private publication, after merely three days of operations. The minister provided no justification for the action, and without a court order, the decision to indefinitely ban the publication is illegal.

In 2007, the Kagame government regularly arrested and illegally detained a number of different journalists, including two American correspondents. The threat of imprisonment posed by far the greatest threat to the independent journalist in Rwanda. On January 12 for example, following the publication of an open letter in the private Umurabyo condemning the country's press freedom violations, Agnes Uwimana Nkusi, the paper's editor was arrested and charged with sectarianism and discrimination. On the belief that she represented a "threat to state security" the court judge kept her in pretrial detention until her case was heard in April when she was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay $760 in fines. Separately, in February a Congolese professor who had come to Kigali to teach was arrested and accused of "threatening national security" following the publication of an article online with his name on it that was severely critical of the Rwandan government. After his health began to deteriorate in prison, the Congolese professor was released on March 21 and cleared of all charges. This was the first instance in Rwandan where an individual had been imprisoned for something that had been published online. Also in March, a reporter and photographer with the American publication, US News and World Report, along with a local journalist for the private newspaper Umuco, were detained while covering a trial. The two Americans were released after three hours following the confiscation of all of the photographs they had taken. A number of other similar instances took place throughout the year. Umuseso, a critical independent newspaper, was a particular target with staff members being interrogated and arrested on manufactured charges like rape intended to soil their reputation.

On a positive note, Tatiana Mukakibib, a former presenter for the state-owned Radio Rwanda was finally acquitted of the genocide charges she faced after spending 11 years in pretrial detention. Yet the government continued to make abundantly clear it's aggressive stance towards the journalism industry. In September on a state-run TV program, government ministers accused many in the media of working with "negative forces" inside and outside of the country. In fact, the interior minister even went so far as to say that any journalist who publishes an official document should be detained until he or she reveals the source of the leak. In response to such aggression, RIMEG, Rwanda's largest private publisher that produces Umuseso among others, announced that it would go into a self-imposed suspension until the government apologized or provided evidence for its accusations. The private newspaper Umuco soon followed suit. Both publishing houses remained closed for a period of a few weeks and claim that they started publishing again despite the government's inaction because the demand for an independent news source was too great.

Most newspapers operating in Rwanda face a number of financial constraints that it make impossible to publish daily. In fact, the state-owned The New Times is the only paper that appears daily. The government refuses to advertise with any of the private media outlets, particularly those that provide critical reports. The British Broadcasting Corporation and Voice of America are still able to operate in the country, but Radio France Internationale is still banned after the government severed diplomatic relations with France in 2006. Internet access appears to be unrestricted but monitored by the government and is available to less than 1 percent of the population.