MAY 11, 2007 Posted June 19, 2007 John Williams Ntwali, City Radio CENSORED, IMPRISONED Ntwali, the host of a cultural Kinyarwanda-language bi-weekly program on private City Radio, was arrested on the orders of station’s program director, Alex Rutareka, and later charged with promoting “genocidal ideology” in connection with the broadcast of a Hutu Christian priest’s…
New York, April 20, 2007–A court in the capital, Kigali, today sentenced Agnès Nkusi-Uwimana, director of the bi-monthly journal Umurabyo, to a year in prison on charges linked to the publication of a reader’s letter critical of the government, according to local journalists and press freedom group Journaliste en Danger. Nkusi-Uwimana has been jailed since…
New York, February 12, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the brutal attack on Friday against the editor of a private bi-monthly after the newspaper published articles critical of the government. Editor Jean Bosco Gasasira of the Kinyarwanda-language Umuvugizi remained in intensive care in a hospital in the capital Kigali late today after…
By Joel SimonAs Venezuelan elections approached in November, President Hugo Chávez accused news broadcasters of engaging in a “psychological war to divide, weaken, and destroy the nation.” Their broadcast licenses, he said, could be pulled–no idle threat in a country where a vague 2004 media law allows the government to shut down stations for work…
The Rwandan media continued operating in an atmosphere of pervasive self-censorship periodically reinforced by government repression. In a January 24 speech broadcast on state radio, President Paul Kagame accused Rwandan journalists of unprofessional conduct, including corruption, and suggested that this justified limits on press freedom.
New York, January 16, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the jailing since Friday of the director of a private Kinyarwanda-language newspaper in the capital, Kigali, for publishing a letter critical of the government. Agnès Nkusi-Uwimana of the bi-monthly Umurabyo was still being detained today at the Muhima police station on charges of discrimination and…
November 27, 2006 Posted December 12, 2006 Radio France Internationale CENSORED Authorities stopped FM transmission of French broadcaster Radio France Internationale (RFI) after a French judge accused President Paul Kagame, the Tutsi former rebel leader, of involvement in the death of his predecessor in 1994, according to international media reports. Kagame denied any involvement, but…
New York, August 9, 2006—The editor of the private newspaper Umuco has gone into hiding following official criticism of articles in his paper and a police summons, according to several local sources. Bonaventure Bizumuremyi also complained of receiving threatening phone calls, the sources said. The incidents come days after another Umuco journalist, Jean-Léonard Rugambage, was…
New York, July 31, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the provisional release of journalist Jean-Léonard Rugambage, who had been jailed for nearly 11 months by a traditional court trying suspects in the 1994 genocide. Rugambage was freed on Friday on the orders of the national committee overseeing traditional or “gacaca” courts following an investigation…