World Press Freedom Day 2012
By Jennifer Fierberg, MSW
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that 18 independent Rwandan journalists live in exile. Additionally, four journalists have been murdered with their cases having gone unsolved let alone investigated.
The regional contrast to Rwanda and media freedoms, CPJ reports, that in the last ten years the DRC has three journalists who have fled into exile, Libya reports one and Ethiopia reporting five.
With the death of Charles Ingabire in December of 2011 the UNHCR received much pressure from the international community to relocate the Rwandan journalists in exile who resided in Uganda in order to prevent another unexplainable death. Many have since been relocated to other countries around the world but this relocation process is no paradise.
While the journalists are grateful for the protection they face new challenges of language barriers, seeking employment and simply trying to feed themselves. Many have the misconception that once relocated the host country supports their every need. This is not true. They struggle to maintain daily subsistence.
Jeremy Browne, Minister of Human Rights stated the following in response to the honoring of World Press Freedom Day,” Media freedom has the power to transform societies and to change the course of history. Over the past year, across the Middle East and North Africa, ordinary citizens found their voices using social media and blogs.
But freedom of expression continues to be repressed in many countries and some have seen a significant decline in media freedoms. Around the world, journalists, bloggers and others have been obstructed from doing their work by being harassed, monitored, detained, or subjected to violence.”
One journalist, who preferred to remain anonymous stated, “I have hope that Rwandans will one day enjoy a free and independent press. It may take time (years), but history shows that a struggle for a free and independent press is not done in vain. I pity those who invest in persecuting journalists or people as a way of entrenching themselves in power. In persecuting and silencing others, you eventually pay a much heavier price.”
The Rwandan Journalists in exile have organized themselves into The Rwanda Journalists Association in Exile and have published the following press release in regards to the situation they are facing:
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