UK urges Rwanda to lift BBC broadcasting ban

Corporation’s local-language FM radio services were suspended last October after anger over film questioning official accounts of 1994 genocide.

The UK has called on the Rwandan government to lift its ban on BBC radio broadcasts in the country’s most common language, imposed in protest against the news organisation’s documentary about the 1994 genocide.

A Foreign office spokesperson said that the UK government “recognises the hurt caused in Rwanda by some parts of the documentary”, but it was “concerned” by the move to suspend the BBC’s FM broadcasts and hold an official investigation.

“The UK believes that a free and vibrant media has an important role to play in any democracy,” said the spokesman. “Following the broadcast in October of a BBC documentary about the Rwandan genocide, the Rwandan authorities suspended the BBC’s Kinyarwanda service and launched an inquiry.

“The UK recognises the hurt caused in Rwanda by some parts of the documentary, but is concerned by this decision, and urges the Rwanda government to allow the BBC to resume its broadcasts as soon as possible.”

The comments came as the Foreign Office published its Human Rights and Democracy Report 2014, which included a case study on Rwanda that focused on concerns about freedom of association and expression.

The report said it “noted with concern” the forced cancellation of talk shows on Isango Star and Contact FM, and the arrest of two journalists from Salus Radio in 2014.

However, it said it “welcomed” the arrest and trial of two police officers in connection with the July 2013 murder of anti-corruption activist Gustave Makonene, who worked for Transparency International.

Earlier this month, a Rwandan inquiry urged the country’s government to take criminal action against the BBC over the documentary, Rwanda’s Untold Story, broadcast on BBC2 on 1 October 2014.

The report, by a committee of the government-appointed Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency, said the documentary had made “a litany of claims and assertions” that “violate Rwandan law, the BBC’s own ethical guidelines and limitations to press freedom”. It also accused the film of “minimising and denying genocide”.

Claiming that it had “serious evidence of criminal offences”, the committee urged the government to “initiate criminal and civil processes”. It said the government should terminate its agreement with the BBC, which allows the corporation to broadcast on FM.

A BBC spokesperson said: “We are extremely disappointed by the findings of this commission. While we do not yet know the full implications for the BBC in Rwanda, we stand by our right to produce the independent journalism which has made us the world’s most trusted news source.

“The documentary Rwanda’s Untold Story, which was produced by a current affairs team in London and broadcast only in the UK, is currently going through the BBC’s robust editorial complaints process. This process has not yet concluded, but the provisional findings are that the documentary does not breach the BBC’s editorial standards.

“We strongly reject any suggestion that any part of this documentary constitutes genocide denial.”

In late October last year, the Rwandan government suspended FM services by BBC Gahuza, which broadcasts to the country and neighbour Burundi in their most common language, Kinyarwanda. However, the BBC service – staffed by journalists based in London and the two African countries – is still available to a limited number of Rwandans via the internet.

Rwanda’s Untold Story sparked controversy by suggesting President Paul Kagame may have had a hand in shooting down his predecessor’s plane, a crash that triggered the mass killings.

It also quoted US researchers who suggested that many of the more than 800,000 Rwandans who died in the 1994 genocide may have been ethnic Hutus, and not ethnic Tutsis as the government maintains.

Kagame accused the corporation of “genocide denial” in the documentary, which he said it had chosen to “tarnish Rwandans, dehumanise them”.

Source: Theguardian.com

By: Dugald Baird

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