Rwanda media body opposes BBC ban
© 2014 AFP
24 October 2014
A Rwandan media regulatory body said Friday it opposed calls for the BBC to
be banned from broadcasting in the country after it aired a controversial
documentary on the country's leadership and the genocide of 1994.
The Rwanda Media Commission (RMC), an independent body, said the programme
was "insulting" and that the BBC was guilty of "distorting the history of
genocide", but added a ban "should not be the solution".
Earlier this week furious lawmakers in parliament called for the FM licence
the BBC uses to broadcast across the country -- in English, Kinyarwanda and
French -- to be withdrawn.
The BBC documentary, "Rwanda's Untold Story", was broadcast earlier this
month and highlighted growing criticism of President Paul Kagame and revived
allegations that his Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) -- then a rebel group, now
the ruling political party -- was behind the shooting down of a plane that
triggered the genocide.
President Kagame told parliament earlier this month that the BBC had chosen
to "tarnish Rwandans, dehumanise them" and accused it of "genocide denial".
An estimated 800,000 people, mostly minority Tutsis, were killed in just 100
days -- a rate of killing that was far faster than the Holocaust in World
War II.
"We all understand that the documentary is insulting, is distorting the
history of genocide against Tutsis but taking the further step to revoke the
licence of BBC should not be the solution," said RMC president Fred Muvunyi.
"The BBC does not only broadcast news about Rwanda but worldwide news.
Revoking the licence... punishes the ordinary people who benefit from what
we listen to BBC," he said, calling on the government to "ignore the
parliament's recommendations."
Prominent international academics, experts and diplomats have also accused
the BBC of being "recklessly irresponsible" by allegedly promoting a
revisionist account of the genocide in the documentary, notably by
questioning the number of Tutsis who were killed.
The BBC, one of the country's most popular broadcasters, said the programme
in "no way" sought "to downplay or conceal the horrifying events of 1994"
and subsequent events.
EM
On the 49th Parallel
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in
anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni
katika machafuko"
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