Who will save Rwandan Press from dirty contracts?

Aftermath of 1994 Genocide against Tutsis, Rwanda suffered a lot to rebuild itself. From that time till today Rwanda is among the fastest growing economy in Africa and It is  the first country around the globe to have many women parliamentarians yet It is ranked a 161st  country  on Reporters Without Boarders 2016  rankings on how World countries respect Freedom of Press.

Not only today, Rwanda have never had a good rank, and today It comes under Burundi, Democratic Republic of Cong, South Sudan and Palestine  countries which were  paralyzed by wars.

Reporters without Boarders is ranking Rwanda  in last  positions however  recently on 7^th November,2016  Rwanda Governance Board  launched a Rwanda Media Barometer shows that Rwanda press freedom grows to 69.6 %  in 2016 from 60.7% in 2013 due to important reforms which were made.

 The RGB shows that Economical stable conditions to media practitioners rose to 67.4% yet Radio K FM of a giant Kenyan media company ‘’Nation Media Group’’, Exalto TV, Yego TV and  RwandaFocus have already closed down in one year  due to the economic related problems and Izuba rirashe, Pro-governmental, changed a website from print.

And the rests are struggling to continue their media profession under contracts of devil against Press freedom which they sign with Government institutions, MTN, TIGO and AirTel,...

In Rwanda, where I know very well, it is possible a media to sign a contract with Ministries and other government institutions. 

Under these Contracts, a media house is obliged to report events which were prepared by these institutions and this results that a media owner prevents his journalists from reporting negatively to his boss because of fearing to lose his contract and media houses choose to report good and close eyes before serious issues which are happening in the institution or company.  

For far journalistic investigation, Journalist report what is happening among low citizens and to point a finger on what is happening o among top officials and top government institutions stays a sin for fear to breach the contract.

Rwanda Press Freedom died under dirty Contracts

You can state many things in Rwanda which are hindrances to the press freedom but It is also a woe to ignore these contracts which are being used as a sharpen sword to choke Press freedom in Rwanda.

In Rwanda, a well paid contract from TIGO, MTN,… is of The New times, RBA,… all  pro-governmental media which always praise the government and companies themselves and then if you are private media house you need to accept those conditions of not reporting bad to them.

i.e.: in a media house in which I am a journalist, our Reporter reported about Rwanda Revenue Authority with story title said that ‘’RRA can fire out 400 workers’’ [translated from Kinyarwanda title] ‘’Rwanda Revenue ishobora gusezerera abakozi 400’’

 

Then after few days RRA claimed that the story is incorrect and recommended to change it because it is incorrect while the sound was recorded and very well understandable.

 

I heard my boss saying that he was asked to make choice between to lose a contract or to modify a news story.

My boss resisted but I couldn’t know the end of this saga.

 

It is not enough Rwanda to praise  a numerical increase of media houses without quality products, Rwanda should also be aware of economic dictatorship which is being done everywhere in media houses through this Devil’s contracts against press freedom and deal with it.

   

Yes, it is good that till now there is no journalist who are locked inn jail  due to his profession but economically they are. and they chose to close eyes before serious issues  in order to get dirty money even if they still suffering from poverty.

On the other hand I don’t ignore that media live for adverts but these adverts shouldn’t be used as a weapon to silence or to manipulate media.  

 

*Devil’s contracts: a saying which was given to contracts which are used to silence Media

 

 

KARANGWA Janvier is a university student, Journalist as well as a blogger

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