Negative role of media in genocide against the Tutsi still alive

The role of the media in the incitement of people to commit the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda was central to a case before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) that began in October 2000.

The tribunal was tasked with prosecuting high level perpetrators and the masterminds of the genocide against the Tutsi. The defendants in what was known as the Media Case included RTLM co-founder, Ferdinand Nahimana, its executive, Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza and Kangura founder and editor, Hassan Ngeze.

In 2003, the three were convicted of genocide, incitement to commit genocide, and persecution using radio broadcasts and newspaper articles as a crime against humanity. Nahimana and Ngeze were sentenced to life imprisonment while Barayagwiza was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment.

The Media Case set a precedent. It held media executives accountable for inciting genocide regardless of other factors that may have influenced the perpetrators. Legal scholars suggested that the judgement would have a significant impact on future cases of incitement to genocide.

Almost two decades later, when Rwanda is commemorating, for the 28^th time, the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, both mainstream and social media are still being used as weapons to deny the genocide against the Tutsi and for spreading genocide ideology.  Media is used to rewrite the history of genocide by turning the suspects and killers into heroes while those who stopped the genocide are blamed for committing genocide.  

Genocide suspects hiding in countries all over the world have found supporters especially in western capitals who include news editors, authors, scholars and the so-called human rights defenders. The genocide suspects as well as their supporters easily get space in international media with the aim of changing the narrative on the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Social media platforms, especially YouTube, and online free to air radio channels are used in genocide denial as well as spreading hate propaganda. Although many may believe that the genocide against the Tutsi ended in 1994, genocide scholars say that genocide takes place in stages and, as such, the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda is not yet over.

Gregory H Stanton, President of Genocide Watch explained the 10 stages of genocide.

 At the moment, those who committed the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda are in the phase of genocide denial which is the last stage. Genocide scholars say that at each of the earlier stages there was an opportunity for the International Community to halt and stop genocide before it happened but they did not. Today, genocide denial is taking place mainly using media outlets and book publications.

In 1995, former non-resident British ambassador to Rwanda Edward Clay revealed what a country like Britain and probably all Western countries were not interested in intervening in Rwanda to stop the genocide against the Tutsi.

“Rwanda was the classic small country far away of which we knew and wished to know nothing ... The country was poor, overcrowded, French speaking and offered no obvious attractions to us,” said the British ambassador, summing up the UK’s attitude and probably that of the entire Western world towards Rwanda before the genocide.

This kind of attitude towards Rwanda still prevails in the West. The more than one million Rwandan lives lost in 100 days of the genocide matter less.  Therefore, as Rwandans were able to stop the genocide on their own when the international community looked away, they should also be on the  forefront of fighting the media war that still carries on the agenda to complete the genocide against the Tutsi. 

Ironically, Western media, scholars and “human rights defenders” who were silent when the genocide was taking place in Rwanda in 1994 are the ones very active now shielding genocide perpetrators to evade justice by denying their role in genocide. The role that was started by local media in Rwanda in 1994, is now carried forward by foreign international and social media spaces.

Once again, the Rwandan people are being abandoned and failed by the international community.  

In a 2000 report, the Organisation of African Unity suggested that the international community should have moved to address the hate propaganda before the massacres started. It should have recognised the RTLM broadcasts as an essential part of the preparation for the genocide.

The failure, again, to act on hate speech and genocide denial by Western media and social media platforms is a serious concern to Rwandans, as they commemorate the genocide against the Tutsi.