Burundi: Radio station and news agency suspended

IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
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PRESS RELEASE/ALERT - BURUNDI

15 February 2005

Radio station and news agency suspended

SOURCE: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), New York

(CPJ/IFEX) - The following is a 14 February 2005 CPJ press release:

BURUNDI: Radio station and news agency suspended

New York, February 14, 2005-Burundian independent radio station Radio
Publique Africaine (RPA) today resumed broadcasting after authorities
suspended the station on Friday for two days, accusing it of violating the
country's press law.

Private news agency Net-Press, which was also summarily banned on Friday for
seven days following libel complaints, remained shuttered. Local journalists
believe that authorities are trying to muzzle the press in the run-up to
elections scheduled this year.

"A free and fair election requires unfettered media," said CPJ Executive
Director Ann Cooper. "Burundian officials' recent actions are therefore very
troubling. We call on authorities to stop this harassment and to allow
Net-Press to resume operations."

The government-appointed media regulatory body, the Conseil National de la
Communication (CNC), issued the suspension orders. 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 this year, 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.

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.

CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to
safeguard press freedom worldwide. For more information, visit
http://www.cpj.org

For further information, contact Africa Program Coordinator Julia Crawford
(x112) at CPJ, 330 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10001, U.S.A., tel: +1 212 465
1004, fax: +1 212 465 9568, e-mail: [email protected], Internet:
http://www.cpj.org/

The information contained in this press release/alert is the sole
responsibility of CPJ. In citing this material for broadcast or publication,
please credit CPJ.
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