FEBRUARY 11, 2005
Posted: February 16, 2005
Radio Publique Africaine
CENSORED
Burundi's government-appointed media regulatory body, the Conseil National de la Communication (CNC) ordered independent radio station Radio Publique Africaine (RPA) closed for two days, accusing it of violating the country's press law.
In a letter dated February 11, the CNC accused RPA of "multiple violations of the law regulating the press in Burundi," including "offending public morals" by reporting on the rape of an 8-year-old girl and threatening public security by "deforming" the words of Tutsi politician and former President Jean-Baptiste Bagaza.
RPA Director Alexis Sinduhije, a CPJ International Press Freedom awardee in 2004, said these allegations were intended to intimidate the station, which has been airing critical debates and editorials about the country's electoral process.
Burundi is due to hold elections in April 2005, but the electoral timetable has already been delayed. A constitutional referendum has been postponed three times and is now planned for February 28.
In November, the CNC denied a request for RPA to create a regional radio station in partnership with Ngozi University in the north of the country. No radio station, including state-run RTNB, currently has any local affiliates outside the capital, Bujumbura.
FEBRUARY 14, 2005
Posted: February 16, 2005
Net-Press
CENSORED
The government-appointed media regulatory body, the Conseil National de la Communication (CNC), banned the private Net-Press news agency for seven days following libel complaints.
Jean-Claude Kavumbagu, director of Net-Press, said the CNC suspended his news agency because of two articles alleged to be libelous.
One of the Net-Press articles accused Frédéric Bamvuginyumvira, head of the National Committee for Rehabilitation of War Victims, of diverting food aid, according to Kavumbagu. An editorial piece that ran several times in January and February said that National Assembly President Jean Minani was lazy and unfit to run for president of Burundi. Minani is expected to be a presidential candidate for FRODEBU, the mainly Hutu party of the current transitional president.
Kavumbagu said he was not given any opportunity to answer the CNC's allegations.
The same day, the CNC ordered a two-day ban on independent radio station Radio Publique Africaine, raising fears that authorities are trying to muzzle the press in the run-up to April elections.
JUNE 14, 2005
Updated: June 24, 2005
Etienne Ndikuriyo, Zoom Net and Bonesha FM
LEGAL ACTION, IMPRISONED
Radio and online journalist Ndikuriyo was arrested by the national intelligence agency in connection with a story that questioned the health of President Domitien Ndayizeye, according to The Associated Press and sources interviewed by the Committee to Protect Journalists. He was held at the intelligence agency's headquarters in the capital, Bujumbura.
Ndikuriyo reported June 9 that the president was suffering from depression in the wake of his party's defeat in recent municipal elections. The story appeared on the e-mail news service Zoom Net; Ndikuriyo is director of the news service. He is also a journalist with the independent radio station Bonesha FM.
The AP quoted Lt. Col. Jancier Rubwebwe, head of the national intelligence service, as saying that Ndikuriyo was being asked to reveal his sources, but had refused to do so. Local journalists said the offending story had quoted anonymous sources described as close to Ndayizeye. Article 8 of Burundi's 2003 media law says that journalists cannot be forced to reveal their sources, according to the Association of Burundian Journalists.
Ndikuriye was held for three days before gaining access to a lawyer. By law, Ndikuriye was entitled to a lawyer's representation during that time, according to Gabriel Sinarinzi, a lawyer who was eventually allowed to advise the journalist.
On June 17, Ndikuriye was brought before a public prosecutor, who ordered that the journalist be transferred to the central prison in Bujumbura. Sinarinzi told CPJ that the prosecutor produced an arrest warrant that stated Ndikuriye was being held for “violating the honor and the privacy of the head of state.” The charge carries a penalty of up to five years in prison. As of June 21, however, Ndikuriye had not been brought before a judge for a hearing, as required by law.
Burundi's FDD party, comprising former rebels, won more than half of the seats in the June 3 municipal elections, outperforming Ndayizeye's FRODEBU party. These were the first national elections since civil war broke out in 1993, and the first in a series of votes marking the completion of Burundi's transition to democracy. Elections to the lower house of Parliament and the Senate are due to be held in July. The new members of parliament are then due to elect a new president in August.
On June 23, Ndikuriye was freed on bail of 500,000 Burundian francs (US$483) and ordered to report to a magistrate once a week.
JULY 15, 2005
Posted: July 18, 2005
Radio Publique Africaine
HARASSED
Burundi's National Communications Council ordered the popular independent station Radio Publique Africaine off the air indefinitely, alleging that RPA's recent election coverage was biased and that it had insulted the council. Alexis Sinduhije, RPA's director, called the suspension unjust and said the station intended to stay on the air despite the order.
In a letter to the station, the council accused RPA of giving live coverage to the election campaigns of only two political parties out of some 30 that ran in the recent election, including the former rebel CNDD-FDD. It also accused RPA of having broadcast "defamatory, insulting, and offensive words" about the council, according to Agence France-Presse.
Burundi held municipal elections June 3 and parliamentary elections July 4, aimed at ending more than a decade of ethnic conflict and completing the country's transition to democracy. Both sets of elections were won by the pro-Hutu CNDD-FDD, which outperformed the pro-Hutu FRODEBU party of the transition president, Domitien Ndayizeye.
Sinduhije told CPJ that his station gave all of the parties 20 minutes of airtime per week during the campaigns. Local sources said much of the communications council's ire revolved around RPA's use of a mobile studio for live coverage.
During the municipal elections, Sinduhije said, RPA used its mobile studio to provide live campaign coverage of the five parties it considered to be the most important. He said communications council Chairman Jean-Pierre Manda had praised RPA's coverage.
For the parliamentary vote, Sinduhije said, the mobile studio covered public campaign rallies of the CNDD-FDD and a small pro-Tutsi party, the MRC, but the other parties had conducted only "house-to-house" campaigning.
In February, the council ordered RPA closed for two days, accusing it of "multiple violations" of the country's press laws, including "offending public morals" by reporting on the rape of an 8-year-old girl and threatening public security by "deforming" the words of a politician. In September 2003, the station was ordered suspended indefinitely after it broadcast an interview with a rebel spokesman. RPA observed both bans and was later allowed to reopen.
It was not immediately clear whether the communications council would enforce its new ban. Sinduhije is a 2004 recipient of CPJ's International Press Freedom Award.
"Governments in a free society should not be in the business of deciding the editorial content of a radio station," CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said. "This order should be lifted immediately, and RPA should be allowed to report the news without harassment from authorities."
JULY 22, 2005
Posted: August 17, 2005
Radio Publique Africaine
CENSORED
RPA fell silent around 5 p.m. local time as a large group of police broke into the station compound, padlocked its studios, and cut off its transmitter, local sources said. The closure took place despite an earlier compromise deal between the authorities and RPA.
The National Communications Council—known by its French acronym CNC—ordered RPA indefinitely closed on July 15, alleging that its recent election coverage was biased and that it had insulted the council. RPA director Alexis Sinduhije, a 2004 recipient of the Committee to Protect Journalists' International Press Freedom Award, denied the council's allegation of bias and said the station would defy the ban.
On July 19, however, RPA agreed to close for 48 hours, following a compromise deal mediated by the Association of Burundian Journalists (ABJ), the Association of Radio Broadcasters, and the Burundian Press Observatory, a self-regulatory body for the profession. Mediators said that as part of the compromise, the CNC had agreed to lift the ban at the end of the 48 hours. It did not do so, however.
RPA resumed broadcasting on July 21 and continued until police moved in the following day. According to CPJ sources, orders to send in the police came from the office of President Domitien Ndayizeye, whose FRODEBU party lost to the former rebel movement CNDD-FDD in recent municipal and parliamentary elections. The three professional organizations mediating in the dispute continued their efforts.
On July 27, the CNC authorized the station to resume broadcasting. President Ndayizeye also named a new CNC, following the resignation Jean Pierre Manda as its chairman. The new CNC is headed by a former journalist and includes RPA's deputy director Jean-Marie Hicuburundi.
Hicuburundi told the Committee to Protect Journalists that RPA wanted an official inventory of equipment before it went back on air, to ensure that there was no loss or damage to its property as a result of the forced closure. The station went back on air July 30.