Media in Rwanda

Media houses in Rwanda advised to emphasize community issues in their coverage


BY GEORGE KAGAME


Retired Canadian media publisher John Honderich has advised Rwandan media practitioners to unite and work towards creating a serious industry in the country that can competently challenge government policies, instead of relying on it as the only source of news, legislation and funding.



Presenting a keynote speech on press freedom during the ongoing media training programme, dubbed 'Improving journalism in Rwanda, one story a time' on Wednesday in Butare. Honderich said if the Rwandan media industry debated on many affairs beyond government issues and events, in the country it would increasingly dominate public affairs and inevitably develop.
"People in the audience want to participate in public issues outside government, these are the people that will develop a greater freedom of the press", Honderich said.


Honderich, a former publisher of Canada's leading daily newspaper The Toronto Star has been in Rwanda before and has expressed a desire to help in the development of journalism in the country.


The Rwandan government has in the past been accused of being intolerant to media criticism which has arguably suppressed the development of a free and active media industry in the country.

International media rating organisations have also ranked Rwanda very low among 'media friendly' countries for its alleged hard line against media houses which are percieved as not toying the government official line.


In its defense, the Rwandan government has on many occasions stated that the media industry is unprofessional and many practitising journalists in the country needed further training.

In response, privately owned media organizations have cited limited revenue from the private and public sector as a reason for continued closure and poor management in many of these institutions. They say both factors conspire to maintain the current poor state of the media in Rwanda.

Honderich further said the Rwandan media needs to put more emphasis on the coverage of community issues, "there is a lot of interest among the public to participate in public and media related issues".

He gave the example of The Toronto Star which has long employed an in-house ombudsman whose job is to: "follow on issues and complaints raised by the readers The ombudsman also ensures the editorial policy book of the issues that the paper covers is maintained".


The 'Improving Journalism in Rwanda Ones story at a time' programme was organized by the Rwanda Initiative, a cooperation programme between the National University of Rwanda and Canada's Carleton University. T

he programme has seen some Rwandan journalists going for study programmes at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and 75 interns, journalists, and training editors from Canada to train journalists in Rwanda.

The training was opened by the Minister of Information Louise Mushikiwabo at the beginning of the week.