The Media and the Rwanda Genocide

480 Pages·2007·2.46 MB·English

by  Kofi Annan

The Media and the Rwanda Genocide
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THE MEDIA AND
THE RWANDA GENOCIDE
Edited by
Allan Thompson
With a Statement by
Kofi Annan
P
Pluto Press
LONDON • ANN ARBOR, MI
Fountain Publishers
KAMPALA, UGANDA
International Development Research Centre
OTTAWA • CAIRO • DAKAR • MONTEVIDEO • NAIROBI • NEW DELHI • SINGAPORE
First published 2007 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
and 839 Greene Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106
www.plutobooks.com
International Development Research Centre
PO Box 8500, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1G 3H9
www.idrc.ca/[email protected]
ISBN 1–55250–338–0 (e-book)
Fountain Publishers Ltd
Fountain House, 55 Nkrumah Road, P.O. Box 488, Kampala, Uganda
www.fountainpublishers.co.ug
E-mail: [email protected]
ISBN-10 9970–02–595–3
ISBN-13 978–9970–02–595–4
Copyright © Allan Thompson, 2007. Statement by Kofi Annan, © 2007
The right of Allan Thompson to be identifi ed as the author of this work has been asserted by
him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Hardback
ISBN-13 978 0 7453 2626 9
ISBN-10 0 7453 2626 9
Paperback
ISBN-13 978 0 7453 2625 2
ISBN-10 0 7453 2625 0
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton
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Contents
Message to Symposium on the Media and the Rwanda Genocide ix
Kofi Annan
Preface xi
Notes on Contributors xiii
1 Introduction 1
Allan Thompson
2 The Media Dichotomy 12
Roméo Dallaire
3 Rwanda: Walking the Road to Genocide 20
Gerald Caplan
PART ONE: HATE MEDIA IN RWANDA
4 Call to Genocide: Radio in Rwanda, 1994 41
Alison Des Forges
5 RTLM Propaganda: the Democratic Alibi 55
Jean-Pierre Chrétien
6 Kangura: the Triumph of Propaganda Refi ned 62
Marcel Kabanda
7 Rwandan Private Print Media on the Eve of the Genocide 73
Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro
8 Echoes of Violence: Considerations on Radio and Genocide
in Rwanda 90
Darryl Li
9 RTLM: the Medium that Became a Tool for Mass Murder 110
Mary Kimani
10 The Effect of RTLM’s Rhetoric of Ethnic Hatred in Rural
Rwanda 125
Charles Mironko
11 Journalism in a Time of Hate Media 136
Thomas Kamilindi
PART TWO: INTERNATIONAL MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE
GENOCIDE
12 Reporting the Genocide 145
Mark Doyle
vi CONTENTS
13 Who Failed in Rwanda, Journalists or the Media? 160
Anne Chaon
14 Reporting Rwanda: the Media and the Aid Agencies 167
Lindsey Hilsum
15 Limited Vision: How Both the American Media and
Government Failed Rwanda 188
Steven Livingston
16 Missing the Story: the Media and the Rwanda Genocide 198
Linda Melvern
17 What Did They Say? African Media Coverage of the First 100
Days of the Rwanda Crisis 211
Emmanuel C. Alozie
18 Exhibit 467: Genocide Through a Camera Lens 231
Nick Hughes
19 Media Failure over Rwanda’s Genocide 235
Tom Giles
20 A Genocide Without Images: White Film Noirs 238
Edgar Roskis
21 Notes on Circumstances that Facilitate Genocide: the Attention
Given to Rwanda by the Media and Others Outside Rwanda
Before 1990 242
Mike Dottridge
22 The Media’s Failure: a Refl ection on the Rwanda Genocide 248
Richard Dowden
23 How the Media missed the Rwanda Genocide 256
Alan J. Kuperman
24 An Analysis of News Magazine Coverage of the Rwanda Crisis
in the United States 261
Melissa Wall
PART THREE: JOURNALISM AS GENOCIDE – THE MEDIA TRIAL
25 The Verdict: Summary Judgement from the Media Trial 277
26 The Pre-Genocide Case Against Radio-Télévision Libre des
Milles Collines 308
Simone Monasebian
27 The Challenges in Prosecuting Print Media for Incitement to
Genocide 330
Charity Kagwi-Ndungu
CONTENTS vii
28 ‘Hate Media’ – Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide:
Opportunities Missed by the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda 343
Jean-Marie Biju-Duval
29 A Lost Opportunity for Justice: Why Did the ICTR Not
Prosecute Gender Propaganda? 362
Binaifer Nowrojee
PART FOUR: AFTER THE GENOCIDE AND THE WAY FORWARD
30 Intervening to Prevent Genocidal Violence: the Role of the Media 375
Frank Chalk
31 Information in Crisis Areas as a Tool for Peace: the Hirondelle
Experience 381
Philippe Dahinden
32 The Use and Abuse of Media in Vulnerable Societies 389
Mark Frohardt and Jonathan Temin
33 Censorship and Propaganda in Post-Genocide Rwanda 404
Lars Waldorf
34 PG – Parental Guidance or Portrayal of Genocide:
the Comparative Depiction of Mass Murder in Contemporary
Cinema 417
Michael Dorland
35 The Responsibility to Report: a New Journalistic Paradigm 433
Allan Thompson
Bibliography 447
Index 455
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UNITED NATIONS NATIONS UNIES
THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
---
MESSAGE TO SYMPOSIUM ON THE MEDIA
AND THE RWANDA GENOCIDE
Carleton University School of Journalism and Communication
Ottawa, 13 March 2004
When, on 7 April, people around the world commemorate the 10th
anniversary of the Rwanda genocide, that observance should be fi lled not only
with remorse, but with resolve.
We must remember the victims – the hundreds of thousands of men, women
and children abandoned to systematic slaughter while the world, which
had the capacity to save most of them, failed to save more than a handful,
forever sullying the collective conscience. We must also help the survivors still
struggling with the physical and psychological scars. But most of all, we must
pledge – to ourselves as moral beings and to each other as a human community
– to act boldly, including through military action when no other course will
work, to ensure that such a denial of our common humanity is never allowed
to happen again.
The United Nations has now had ten years to refl ect on the bitter knowledge
that genocide happened while UN peacekeepers were on the ground in Rwanda,
and to learn lessons that all humankind should have learned from previous
genocides. We are determined to sound the alarm about emerging crises and
to help countries tackle the root causes of their problems. I expect soon to
appoint a United Nations special adviser on the prevention of genocide, and
to make other proposals for strengthening our action in this area.
It is encouraging to know that the news media are also undertaking a process
of self-examination as we collectively remember this tragedy. Media were used
in Rwanda to spread hatred, to dehumanize people, and even to guide the
genocidaires toward their victims. Three journalists have even been found
guilty of genocide, incitement to genocide, conspiracy and crimes against
humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. We must fi nd
a way to respond to such abuses of power without violating the principles of
freedom, which are an indispensable cornerstone of democracy.
I am glad that you are confronting these and other questions, including the
role of the international media, especially at a school where future journalists
are being trained. Such training must include refl ection on the responsibilities
of their chosen profession.
There can be no more important issue, and no more binding obligation,
than the prevention of genocide. The world has made some progress in
ix