Burundi
Press freedom cut back in Burundi

afrol News, 29 August - The situation of the press in Burundi is sharply deteriorating, according to reports. The government has started a thorough censorship of radio stations and close surveillance of the Internet. One radio station has already given up the fight against government jamming.

The privately-owned station 'Radio publique africaine' (RPA) announced on 28 August the suspension of all its broadcasts in protest against the jamming of them, especially news programmes, by the telecommunications regulatory body, the ARCT, which is controlled by the Burundian Ministry of Defence. 

ARCT director Col. Nestor Misigaro says the jamming had been done as part of an attempt to get radio station owners to pay their annual licence fees, which several stations, including the government-owned one, had not paid. 

But Alexis Sinduhije, head of 'Radio publique africaine', said mention of the licence fee was "just an excuse" since all radio stations owed money to the ARCT but only RPA had been jammed. The country's media in general consider the US$ 5,000 annual licence fee for a commercial station to be excessive. 

Two days earlier, on 26 August, the National Communications Council (CNC) forbade the Internet websites of Burundian media to post "documents or communiqués of political organisations preaching hatred and violence." One of the sites targeted was the website 'Rugamba', of the Net Press agency, which carries opposition statements. The CNC has threatened to shut down Net Press unless 'Rugamba' stops "all postings of documents or statements undermining peace and public security." 

The CNC banned the fortnightly magazine 'Panafrika' on 30 July for publishing what it said was a "subversive and extremist" issue. The magazine's issue no. 57 carried an interview with former energy and mining minister Mathias Hitimana, who was recently sacked. In the article, headed "Buyoya wants to bury us alive," Hitimana strongly criticised President Pierre Buyoya's "arbitrary and dictatorial methods." 

The Burundian Journalists' Association, ABJ, attacked the ban on the magazine, noting that suspension of a publication was normally the job of the Ministry of Communications, not the CNC. 

On 22 July, the government also banned publication or broadcasting of news about soldiers being killed by rebel forces. "Such news only helps the rebels," an army spokesman said. Interior Minister Salvator Ntihabose added that journalists must "choose between the rebels on the one hand and the government and the army on the other."

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) today expressed concern at what it calls "the sharp decline of press freedom in Burundi over the past month." The French media watchdog especially had reacted to the jamming of 'Radio publique africaine' and the censorship of the Internet.

- The actions of the authorities are seriously threatening the independent media and use of the Internet, the organisation's Secretary-general Robert Ménard said in a statement.

- It is starting to look like systematic harassment, Ménard added. "Burundi's radio stations are the most energetic and professional in the region and their closure or weakening would be a big step backwards for the country. We hope the authorities realise this and do not do anything to seriously harm them," he said. 

Sources: Based on RSF and afrol archives

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