Rwanda
According to the 2020 World Press Freedom Index carried out by RSF, Rwanda takes the 155 place out of 180 which makes it one of the countries with low degree of public media freedom.
Rwanda, a country in central Africa with high population density, marked one of the last 30 positions in the World Press Freedom Index for 2020. Even though the reported abuses in the country by RSF has been majorly reduced recently, censorship and self-censorship are not uncommon.
To give a greater overview of Rwanda, currently, the country is standing a few places ahead from countries such as Singapore,Sudan, Egypt and Cuba. Moreover, the country is just one place after Turkey, which is known as the “world biggest jailor of professional journalists.”
Following the curve of the degree of press freedom, Rwanda performs a relatively stable position in the WPFI for a period of five consecutive years. In 2015, the country was in 161/180 place and gradually improved its press freedoms by reaching 155/180 in 2019.
By analyzing the charts of RSF’s reports, the country achieves a minor but hopeful development in resolving the issue. In 2020, Rwanda remained at 155/180 as in the previous year.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is a non-governmental organization which aims to protect and support freedoms in public media and journalism. One of the organization’s actions towards voicing awareness of the issue concerning media freedom was the establishment of the World Press Freedom Index(WPFI) in 2002.
As shared in the RSF’s reports about Rwanda, the country still lacks some of the necessary legislations for press freedoms — visas for foreign journalists who want to report in Rwanda, active internet networks for accessible free information, judicial sentences for journalists abusing the role of media, etc.
According to RSF, Rwanda’s current struggle with press freedom comes from its leader, Paul Kagame. The former military leader and Vice President of Rwanda, took the power for the third time in the 2017 elections. He marked 20 years of presidency that took oppressive actions against media contents and freedoms. RSF mentioned that under his term authoritarianism and censorship are nowhere to be eliminated.
The low degree of freedom in Rwanda was also mentioned in the annual evaluation report of political rights and liberties — Freedom in the World index for 2020 by Freedom House.
The supporting human rights and freedoms NGO assessed the country under the average (one or two points out of four) in all of the criterias of the index in 2020. The Freedom House announced Rwanda as “not free,” grading the country with 22/100 points.
“The space for free private discussion is limited in part by indications that the government monitors personal communications. Social media are widely believed to be monitored, and the law allows for government hacking of telecommunications networks. The authorities reportedly use informants to infiltrate civil society, further discouraging citizens from expressing dissent,” Freedom House wrote in their reports about Rwanda.
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Martina Stoyanova is double majoring in Journalism & Mass Communication and Business Administration at the American University in Bulgaria. She is passionate about creating change through her writing.
