Rwandan court reduces sentences on jailed journalists

KIGALI, Rwanda — The Rwandan Supreme Court reduce the prison terms of two Rwandan journalists on Thursday, in a sign that Rwanda's media environment might be growing slightly less hostile.

Editor Agnes Uwimana Nkusi’s jail term was dropped from 17 years to four years. She was cleared of an earlier conviction on charges of genocide denial and promoting ethnic divisions, but found guilty of insulting Kagame and “inciting citizens against the government.”

The court also reduced the sentence for reporter Saidati Mukakibibi, for the same incitement charge, from seven to three years.

“We welcome the acquittal on charges of genocide denial and divisionism as well as the sentence reductions,” Nani Jensen, who represented the journalists for London-based Media Legal Defense Initiative, told GlobalPost. “But we will continue to explore options to clear their names fully.”

The two female journalists — both widows with children — were arrested in a string of media crackdowns before Rwanda’s 2010 presidential elections, when two popular media outlets were closed by the government and several reporters fled into exile.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, which tracks press freedom, has criticized the media climate in Rwanda. In a 2011 assessment, it said: “Authorities pursued an aggressive legal assault against critical journalists, using laws that ban insults against public officials and abusing anti-genocide laws to silence independent voices.”

Overt signs of repression remain for journalists in Rwanda.

For example, government agents visibly monitor journalists covering the court case of Victoire Ingabire, an opposition leader who tried to contest Rwanda’s 2010 presidential elections and is now on trial for terrorism and the controversial crime of genocide ideology.

During a recent recess of the Ingabire trial, local reporters huddled to compare notes. As they talked, a plain-clothes intelligence officer stood nearby. The officer, who had earlier checked his handgun with the courtroom guards, didn’t interfere with the reporters. He just listened intently, making his presence unmistakably known.

In Rwanda such “observers” are commonplace at high-profile events and some reporters complain they are a hindrance to free speech and a free press.

Rwanda’s Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Protais Musoni, who is overseeing the country’s media reforms, defends the observers.

“Intelligence and other plain-clothed officers can be there to ensure security," he said. “If something happened to Ingabire in our custody, imagine the image that would create.” 

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President Paul Kagame’s main press reform has been to write new media laws that reduce charges that can be pressed against journalists and newspapers. The new rules were passed by Rwanda’s Parliament earlier this week and are expected to be signed by the president within a couple of months.

In the past year no Rwandan journalists have been charged with crimes related to their reporting and no media houses have been shut down.

Rwandan press analyst Filip Reyntjens says that Kagame can afford to ease up on the press, because it is already cowed by the government.

“Strong repression in the past has led to the disappearance — death, prison, exile — of many journalists,” said Reyntjens, who is a political science professor at the University of Antwerp. “And the remaining ones practice of self-censorship.”

An example is Rwandan press’s largely one-sided coverage of the Ingabire trial, which has consistently reported the prosecution’s side and commented that defense efforts are futile.

The Kinyarwanda language publication Ishema, came close to sanctions in late July when it published an article that referred to president Kagame as a “sociopath.”

Editor Fidele Gakire, avoided potentially serious ramifications by dedicating a special issue of the paper to apologizing to the president. The cover photo showed Gakire bowing to Kagame and inside Gakire wrote that he was “unreservedly sorry.”

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Many Rwanda journalists believe they can achieve independence.

“We are living in a very interesting period when there are signs that the media in Rwanda may be opening up,” said the director of the Rwandan Editors’ Forum, Jean Bosco Rushingabigwi. “Rwanda’s leadership is pushing people to give information to journalists and allow them to do their work. But because of our past and our history, the old patterns are hard to break.”

This week Rwanda begins a period of official mourning for the 18th anniversary of the start of the 1994 genocide when an estimated 800,000 Tutsis as well as some Hutu were massacred over a 100-day period.

Rwanda’s media played a key roll in the massacres, repeatedly inciting violence and in some cases even broadcasting the names and addresses of those who should be targeted.

A great deal of misgiving toward journalists remains. Despite the move toward liberalization, strict regulation of the press is expected to be maintained.

“The actions of media in 1994 was like someone pouring fuel on a burning bush,” said Emmanuel Mugisha, acting director of Rwanda’s Media High Council. “I don’t think Rwanda will be taking any chances.”

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