According to the East African, the BBC Reporter Ignatius Bahizi has been receiving anonymous callers threatening him with violence if he does not stop reporting stories which are critical according to Kigali regime.  Under the heading “Rwanda scribes quizzed over harassing BBC staff” the Uganda Police detectives in Kampala have interrogated the bureau chief of The New Times, a Rwandan government newspaper, and his predecessor.

There is a line you can not cross

The dual Mr. Gashegu Muramira, the bureau chief of The New Times and his predecessor Simon Kayitana are accused of threatening Mr. Ignistiius Bahizi with violence, however, Mr. Muramira denied threatening Mr. Bahizi

“I have never threatened Mr Bahizi. He is my fellow journalist and we have been friends covering the same issues. Why should I threaten him? Let him prove that I have ever threatened him,” Mr Muramira said.

After the BBC TWO Documentary in which Kagame’s past darkness was put into light and all the atrocities that were formerly covered up were exposed,Kagame ordered the closing of the  BBC broadcasts in Kinyarwanda language over claims that it was inciting ethnic hatred.

Ironically the BBC reporters in Kirundi and Kinyarwanda have no control of all the Broadcasts of the BBC because all the Broadcasts are controlled in London, Kagame’s ignorance  thinks would stop BBC by just harassing its local  reporters. The BBC is an independent Organization that would not be intimidated by any government even its own.

The Kigali regime has muzzled all the free press and the free flow of information which is essential to Rwanda’s vision as it claims to have, free press remains a myth in country that West supports with almost half of its national budget. In Rwanda there is no vibrant private radio industry; the so called 19 radio stations in a country of ten million, is mostly owned by the regime sympathizers.

Rwanda ranks the last in the culture of reading compared to its sister countries in the region. This is making one’s way in print journalism as tough as ever in a country where the regime even controls the printing industry. Indeed, the journalists who act as publisher, editor and reporter for their papers face a daily struggle to get their paper on the street.

Rwanda has failed as a country to develop, educate and encourage free media; in fact some of the Rwanda dedicated journalists have found things very difficult to operate in Rwanda. Some have been murdered in the country and others have been murdered in the neighboring Countries.

 

Certainly, part of the reason for harassing the media and lack of respect of the media is the fact that the attention to this sector was and has not been a priority by the RPF Regime for fear of balanced information due to a lot of atrocities by Kigali regime.

Immediately after the genocide RPF has been killing, imprisoning, and harassing innocent Rwandans within the country and beyond its national borders. I mention all this because according to some observers, the main challenge at the moment for the Rwanda government is to change the recent information that the BBC Documentary exposed to the world contrary to what the world believed about Rwanda and Kagame.

Indeed, time and time again we are told that in Rwanda there is no media freedom, no space for comment, no room for criticism, but the World basing on lies, terror and lobbying machinery by the RPF Regime, believed that Rwanda is the miracle success given the genocide that almost plunged the small East African nation into extinction. However, this new Kagame approach of attacking the foreign journalists including the BBC is likely to be a bitter pill to swallow.

 

Joseph Ruhumuriza