New threat to ban BBC broadcasts

Reporters Without Borders today voiced its indignation after the information minister, Louise Mushikiwabo, made a new threat to ban Kinyarwanda-language broadcasts by the BBC if the British radio did not change its editorial line. Broadcasts only resumed on 23 June after a two-month interruption. Rwandan pro-government daily The New Times reported in an article on 26 June that the minister had said the BBC was guilty of “bad faith” and that if the station did not change the way it dealt with the 1994 genocide, broadcasts in Kinyarwanda would be “definitively and unconditionally” suspended. “Broadcasts in Kinyarwanda have barely resumed and new banning threats have already been made against the BBC. We urge Louise Mushikiwabo and the Rwandan government to respect plurality of opinions and handling of news by foreign media and in particular the BBC. These repeated threats are intolerable and should stop immediately”, the worldwide press freedom organisation said. The Rwandan government and the BBC had over the past two months negotiated a resumption in broadcasts. The information ministry said, “The government has lifted the ban on the BBC because the radio agreed to make changes in its editorial line”. The New Times claims that the BBC agreed to the conditions imposed by Kigali and said that the head of the BBC’s Africa service, Jerry Timmins, had said in a letter to the Rwandan authorities that the corporation would be “very attentive” to the content of programmes. The information ministry’s volte-face was due to recent statements by BBC executives refusing to modify its editorial position, The New Times reported. Before the ministry’s new threats were made, the BBC told Reporters Without Borders: “We are pleased that listeners to the BBC's broadcasts in the Kinyarwanda language are now able to hear our programming on FM in Kigali either via our relays or through our FM broadcast partner after a break of nearly two months. We will continue to exercice due impartiality and sensitivity in covering the country's reconciliation and unity process". BBC broadcasts to Rwanda resumed on 23 June following a decision made at a cabinet meeting on 19 June chaired by the head of state, Paul Kagame. Kigali “temporarily suspended” broadcasts on 26 April. This followed the broadcast of a weekly programme Imvo n’Imvano (the heart of the problem), in which Rwandan citizens made comments that the authorities found “likely to obstruct national unity and reconciliation efforts” and “having no purpose but to incite hatred among Rwandans”.