Rwanda blocks website of independent newspaper

By: Simon Columbus on 27 June 2011

Posted in Political filtering, Rwanda, Sub-Saharan Africa

Editor of blocked website murdered in Rwanda

Rwanda news Web site blocked after paper suspended

Taking offline censorship online: Rwanda may start filtering

Exactly one year after the murder of independent newspaper Umuvugizi’s deputy editor, the paper's website is again inaccessible in Rwanda. Its editor has just re-launched the paper as an online-only publication.
Last weekend, Umuvugizi went online with a re-launched version of its website, publishing in Kinyarwanda and English. According to reports on Twitter, the site is currently inaccessible in Rwanda.
Umuvugizi has been a constant victim of Internet filtering since the offline publication was suspended for six months in April 2010 by Rwanda’s Media High Council for undisclosed reasons. The suspension effectively prevented the independent weekly from covering that year’s presidential elections in August. Chief editor John Bosco Gasasira fled for exile, first in Uganda, now in Sweden, aiming to ensure continued publication.
Umuvugizi online was launched merely a month after the ruling, prompting immediate threats of censorship by members of the Media High Council who claimed the publication was “defying its suspension”. The website was blocked for the first time by June 3, 2010, perhaps in response to a story about the lavish travel expenses of President Paul Kagame, as the Committee to Protect Journalists speculates.
Umuvugizi’s deputy editor Jean-Leonard Rugambage Cheriff was shot in the capital Kigali on June 22, 2010, in what the newspaper claims to have been an attack by government security forces. Rugambage's alleged killers were later tried and received life sentences, but Umuvugizi continues to claim that these were mere scapegoats.
Converted into an online-only publication, Umuvugizi has faced on-and-off filtering throughout the last year. In early June 2011, the website was again blocked for three days prior to a court ruling that sentenced chief editor Gasasira in absentia to 2.5 years in prison for insulting the president and inciting civil disobedience.
Herdict: Help us track whether Umuvugizi is blocked!
Internet censorship reporting site Herdict allows Internet users to track which sites are blocked in their countries. If you are in Rwanda, please let us know whether you can access Umugivizi.com. You can submit a report via the Herdict reporter or using Twitter or e-mail.

Rwanda: Two arrested for killing reporter Rugambage

Two people have been arrested over the shooting of a reporter last week, with police saying it was a revenge attack.

Witnesses say Jean Leonard Rugambage, the acting editor of Umuvugizi newspaper, was fired on by two men who then fled in a car.

The government has denied as "baseless" accusations it was behind the killing.

A police statement says one of the suspects is related to someone allegedly killed by Mr Rugambage during the 1994 genocide.

Mr Rugambage, who is survived by his wife and a child, was acquitted of genocide crimes by a local "gacaca" court in 2006.

Human rights groups have accused President Paul Kagame of intimidating the media and the opposition ahead of elections due to take place in August.

A police statement quoted by the pro-government New Times newspaper says the pistol used to shoot Mr Rugambage has been recovered.
RWANDA'S TURBULENT YEAR
Continue reading the main story

* January: Opposition politician Victoire Ingabire returns home and causes a stir for highlighting crimes against Hutus during the genocide
* February: Lt Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa flees with another army officer to South Africa
* March: From exile, Lt Gen Nyamwasa denies being behind recent grenade attacks in Kigali
* April: Umuvugizi paper, critical of the government, suspended
* April: Two top military men put under house arrest after military leadership reshuffle
* April: Ms Ingabire arrested and charged with genocide denial
* June: Her US lawyer arrested
* June: Lt Gen Nyamwasa survives assassination attempt
* June: Umuvugizi reporter Jean Leonard Rugambage shot dead
* August: Presidential elections due

Division in Rwanda's military ranks

The authorities recently suspended the Umuvugizi paper, prompting it to start publishing online instead.

Editor Jean Bosco Gasasira, who fled to Uganda in April after his paper was suspended, said Kigali had masterminded the assassination of Mr Rugambage who died in hospital after the shooting.

"I'm 100% sure it was the office of the national security services which shot him dead," he told US state-funded radio Voice of America.

Mr Gasasira said it was because of an article published on the Umuvugizi website relating to the attempted killing earlier this month of former army chief Lt Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa in South Africa.

But Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo strongly denied such accusations.

"Of course, this is not true, it's baseless," she told the AFP news agency.

"We are not a government that assassinates journalists, we are a responsible government."

The government has also denied accusations it was behind the shooting of Lt Gen Nyamwasa.

He went into exile in South Africa earlier this year after falling out with President Kagame.

In April, Mr Kagame reshuffled the military leadership and two high-ranking officers were also suspended and put under house arrest.

Earlier in the month, Umuvugizi was suspended for six months by the press council for inciting opposition to the government.

Its website, launched in May, is not currently accessible through Rwandan internet providers; the authorities deny involvement in blocking it.

Mr Kagame's government argues that it must take care to control the media and politicians to avoid a repeat of the genocide, in which some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered

Rwanda: two steps forward, three steps back?

Rwanda: two steps forward, three steps back?

By Alec van Gelder & Timothy Cox


We are amongst the first to laud Paul Kagame’s economic reforms that have propelled Rwanda’s Doing Business rankings straight to the top of the “best reformers” list. Slashing the cost of registering new businesses and removing other bureaucratic and administrative barriers to raising capital, making investments and trading domestically and internationally are the reforms other African governments must emulate if they are to escape the poverty and aid trap.

Yet these business-friendly reforms have come at a steep price for political freedom and civil liberties in Rwanda. Kagame looks certain to win yet another seven-year term in August and there is every indication that he is becoming more authoritarian by the day, using state powers to make life a living hell for political opposition and trampling over the freedom of speech that forms the backbone of civil and open society. News of the assassination of Jean Leonard Rugambage, Editor of a Rwandan newspaper that was critical of Kagame before authorities mysteriously forced it to shut its operations, does little to suppress many fears that Rwanda is spiralling towards a political dictatorship.

Newspaper’s deputy editor gunned down outside home in Kigali

Newspaper’s deputy editor gunned down outside home in Kigali

Published on 25 June 2010
In the same country

11 June 2010 - Persecution of independent newspapers extended to online versions

26 April 2010 - Editor of bi-monthly acquitted on appeal

14 April 2010 - Two leading independent weeklies suspended for six months

Reporters Without Borders is shocked and outraged to learn that Jean-Léonard Rugambage, the deputy editor of the fortnightly Umuvugizi, was gunned down outside his home in Kigali at about 11 p.m. on 24 June. He was the first journalist to be murdered in Rwanda since Emmanuel Munyemanzi in 1998.

“We have for months being condemning the climate of terror in Rwanda, the escalating repression of independent journalists and totalitarian tendencies,” Reporters Without Borders said. “It seems that newspaper closures, trials of journalists and blocking of websites have not been enough to elicit a reaction from the international community. Will this tragic development finally open the eyes of those who support this government?”

The press freedom organisation added: “As the August presidential election approaches, the government is organising a tightly controlled and monolithic electoral campaign in which all sources of criticism are being suppressed. This undertaking seems to have culminated in the ambushing and murder of this renowned journalist.”

In a resumption of diplomatic relations, French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Kigali in February and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, attended the Africa-France summit in Nice on 31 May and 1 June.

Reporters Without Borders believes that dialogue cannot be resumed unless particular attention is paid to press freedom and it therefore calls on the French authorities and the European Union delegation in Kigali to ensure that an independent investigation is carried out into this murder. Monitoring this case should be a priority for France’s ambassador to Kigali, Laurent Contini.

Rugambage was slain by four shots fired at close range by gunmen who have yet to be identified. The police took his body away to carry out an autopsy. Also known as “Sheriff,” he left a wife and two-year-old child. His murder has caused shock and dismay in both Rwanda and abroad.

“Jean-Léonard was without doubt killed as a result of his coverage of last week’s attempted murder of Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa in exile in South Africa,” Reporters Without Borders was told by Jean-Bosco Gasasira, his newspaper’s editor, who is himself in exile.

Rugambage reported that telephone calls were made between Rwandan intelligence chief Emmanuel Ndahiro and the Rwandan citizens who were arrested in South Africa after the shooting attack on Gen. Nyamwasa. In a story about the shooting in Le Monde on 22 June, headlined “Rwandan stray bullets,” French journalist Jean-Philippe Rémy wrote: “It is not easy to say what distinguishes Rwanda from a full-blown dictatorship.”

Rugambage had experienced several run-ins with the authorities. Accused of murder during the genocide and then sentenced to a year in prison for contempt of court, he was detained for 11 months in 2005 and 2006 before finally being acquitted. He edited Umuco for a long time before joining Umuvugizi.

He was also the Rwanda correspondent of the regional press freedom organisation Journalist in Danger (JED). “He told things as he felt them,” said a journalist who participated with him in a workshop in Brazzaville in 2007 for JED’s regional correspondents. “He was a very committed guy who paid with his life for his courage as a reporter. He did not beat about the bush, unlike some of his Rwandan colleagues.”

Rwanda was ranked 157th out of 179 countries in the 2009 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. This was the fourth lowest ranking in Africa, above only Eritrea, Somali and Equatorial Guinea. President Kagame has for years been on the Reporters Without Borders list of Predators of Press Freedom.

Rwanda takes its media persecution online

Persecution of independent newspapers extended to online versions

Published on 11 June 2010
In the same country

26 April 2010 - Editor of bi-monthly acquitted on appeal

14 April 2010 - Two leading independent weeklies suspended for six months

23 February 2010 - Court sentences three journalists to imprisonment

Reporters Without Borders reiterates its concern about the harassment of independent newspapers in Rwanda after learning that access to the Umuvugizi news website has been blocked in Rwanda since 3 June on the orders of the Media High Council.

Umuvugizi editor Jean Bosco Gasasira launched the website on 21 April, one week after the Media High Council suspended the print version of his fortnightly newspaper for six months on 13 April. The weekly Umuseso was suspended at the same time.

The executive secretary of the Media High Council, which regulates the media under the supervision of the president’s office, had announced that the Umuvugizi website would be blocked shortly after its launch, arguing that banned newspapers were also banned online.

“The censorship of these newspapers, whether they appear online or in print form, constitutes a crude act of manipulation in the run-up to the presidential election scheduled for 9 August,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“President Paul Kagame’s government, which had already deployed a large arsenal of measures to gag the press, has set a disturbing precedent by blocking this website,” the press freedom organisation added. “The regime has shown it is able to innovate in order to pursue its long-standing obsession about controlling news and information.”

Gasasira told Reporters Without Borders: “Blocking Umuvugizi’s website very clearly shows that President Kagame does not want independent media in Rwanda and will not allow his own people to express views or publish independent news reports by means of journalism.”

He said he thought the site was blocked as a result of an article portraying Kagame as one of the world’s most corrupt dictators and contrasting his acquisition of two jets for 100 million dollars with the fact that 60 per cent of the government’s budget comes from foreign donations while the population is hit by poverty and AIDS.

When the Media High Council suspended Umuseso and Umuvugizi in April, it accused them of “inciting insubordination in the army and police regarding orders from superiors,” publishing “information that endangers public order,” rumour mongering, defamation and invasion of privacy. But it did not cite any articles to support these charges.

Gasasira set up the website after moving to Uganda because he was being harassed and was getting threatening letters in Rwanda. The website is being blocked inside Rwanda by Internet Service Providers such as MTN and Rwandatel, but it is still accessible outside the country.

Last year, Gasasira was convicted on charges of defamation and invasion of privacy. He was also attacked and beaten unconscious.

Rwanda has the fourth lowest ranking in Africa in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index while President Kagame is on the Reporters Without Borders list of “Predators of Press Freedom.

More Paul Kagame Sycophancy From the Press

By Tom Rhodes,

Rwandan President Paul Kagame toured America late last month and a number of articles in the American press have sung praises to his leadership. Undoubtedly, the economic recovery under Kagame since the 1994 genocide is remarkable, but his repressive record on press freedom tarnishes this record.

A Wall Street Journal op-ed by Anne Jolis praised Kagame for his free market thinking while the Associated Press reported on Kagame's presence at the premier of a Tribeca film, "Earth Made of Glass." The film portrayed Kagame in a heroic light, AP reported, and was inspired by a chance dinner conversation the director, Deborah Scranton, had with Kagame two years ago.

The greatest praise and defense of Kagame's leadership stemmed from this week's piece written by Michael Fairbanks on HuffPost. Fairbanks applauds Kagame for his efforts to develop the economy, education, and foreign relations in Rwanda and claims critics of his press freedom record within the international community are myopic, even racist. The premise has merit -- the international community must end its arrogance and listen to Rwandans more instead of pushing their own rash solutions. But all these authors seem to listen to only one Rwandan -- Paul Kagame.

Fairbanks questions why a CNN interview with Kagame, for instance, focused too much on "a minor opposition candidate" Victoire Ingabire. Ingabrire, a Hutu opposition party candidate for the upcoming August elections, was detained April 21 and questioned in court over alleged "evidence of wire transfers showing that Ingabire sent thousands of dollars" to a ruthless Hutu paramilitary group. But Fairbanks failed to mention that she was released on bail the following day since the state prosecutor could not provide sufficient evidence to prove the allegations.

Press freedom organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) are admonished by Fairbanks for defending two local-language "so-called opposition newspapers," Umuseso and Umuvugizi, which were recently suspended. Umuseso and Umuvugizi constitute the only critical local media voices left in the country, and both are now conveniently banned prior to the presidential elections. He goes on to contrast these suspensions with a myriad of international media organizations allowed to operate in the country. While many international media houses do visit Kigali, the one with local-language programming and regular local coverage, BBC, is often intimidated and has been suspended in the past.

Where Fairbanks strategically omits information, at other times it appears his facts are plain wrong. A famous Rwandan general once aligned with Kagame reportedly fled this year fearing arrest after he was accused by the government of terrorism. A few independent journalists went into hiding after Kagame announced at a press conference that he was aware of some journalists interviewing the allegedly dissident general. But Fairbanks spoke to a "senior military official" and claims the general actually fled the country because he was caught cheating on his wife, not for any political reason. The international press was fooled, Fairbanks says, into portraying a womanizer as a valiant opponent to oppression. But perhaps Fairbanks should listen to more Rwandans than one military elite -- the general accused of infidelity is currently in a Rwandan jail and never fled as claimed.

No doubt blanket criticism of the Kagame is unjustified, but so is blanket sycophancy. As it currently stands, Kagame will run in the August presidential elections with only one opposition party "allowed" to register and no independent local media to cover them. Thanks to the likes of Fairbanks, western donors will praise Kagame for holding the elections and the foreign aid will continue to flow, whether the people of Rwanda approve or not.