Journalists jailed for inciting Rwandan genocide

In June, two journalists in Rwanda were sentenced to life in prison for participating in "hate media" which fueled the 1994 genocide. The media played a huge role in the genocide because of the mass amounts of propaganda spilling over radio and tv, which in turn influenced even children and grandparents to participate in the killing of 800,000 Tutsis. The two journalists, Ferdinand Nahimana and Hassan Ngez, were members of Radio Television Libres des Mille Collines, which was known as Radio Machete. RTLM aided in the genocide by telling and instructing people as to where Tutsis were hiding.

I feel Freedom of Speech should be necessary in Rwanda but there needs to be some responsibility. The propaganda that flooded the media during the genocide is exactly the reason that their media today is so heavily controlled. And although I don't like hearing about journalists being imprisoned because of something they said or wrote about, if they're carelessly using the media to manipulate people then action must be taken.

By Mike Gruber
Rwanda Group