Taking Initiative in Rwanda
Training and support for working journalists
The Rwanda Initiative gives both Rwandan reporters and Canadians a chance to rebuild the Rwandan media, which was decimated during the genocide.
This spring and summer, more than a dozen Canadian journalists and students traveled to Rwanda to work at media outlets and teach journalism at the University of Rwanda in Butare.
Allan Thompson, professor at Carleton University and a former journalist with the Toronto Star, is director of the Rwanda Initiative. Last year, he started to send experienced reporters, journalism students and recent graduates to build media capacity in Rwanda.
The news media played a crucial role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Local radio and print media were used as a tool of hate by encouraging Rwandans to turn against each other. On the other hand, international media ignored or misunderstood what was really happening. The genocide is estimated to have left between 800,000 and 1,071,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead.
Kate Harper, a recent graduate from Carleton University's Journalism Program, took part in the Rwanda Initiative. She spent the month of May and June in Rwanda, working as a reporter and copy editor for the News Time. The News Time is an English-language newspaper based in Kigali.
The young reporter had to confront a language barrier. There are three official languages in Rwanda: English, French and Kinyarwanda. Harper worked in collaboration with another reporter, who spoke Kinyarwanda.
When she was not reporting, she edited articles for the daily newspaper. "It was an interesting thing for me, because the work was a mix of editing and reporting," she says.
She found that working for the Kigali-based newspaper was very different from working for a Canadian publication. She worked in a smaller newsroom than in Canada and the deadlines were different.
The deadline at The News Time was at noon. At the Kigali-based newspaper, reporters cover one story one day, they write the story the following day and it gets published the day after.
There is no printing press in the city at the moment. Kigali's main English newspaper is printed in Uganda, the neighbouring country.
During her stay, she visited the University of Rwanda in Butare. The institution is now training professional journalists. There are currently a total of 11 students in the fourth year of the program.
"It is a process," says Harper. "Because of what happened during genocide, "people in Rwanda are just starting to trust the media again."
Harper explains that her trip to Rwanda altered the way she looks at the world.
She finds it inspiring how Rwandans are rebuilding their country.
She will never forget how welcoming Rwandans were. "When you walk down the street in Rwanda, the kids will run up to you, they will hug you," she says,
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The Media and the Rwanda Genocide
A book edited by Allan Thompson
Pluto Press, (February 19, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0745326250
The book explores the role of hate media in the Rwanda genocide and examines international media coverage of the genocide.
