As we commemorate the 2012 World Press Freedom Day, Rwanda stands with the rest of the free world in the belief that Free Media Transforms Societies.
The freedom of media and of expression as guaranteed in articles 33 and 34 of our Constitution symbolizes Rwanda’s recognition that free press is instrumental to social empowerment through enlightenment for transformational purposes.
That is why we regularly asses the media environment in the country to ensure that necessary policy and legal review is carried out to always stay true to national aspirations and trends elsewhere in the free world.
When we celebrated this day a year ago, it was just over two months after the Cabinet meeting which sat on the 30th of March 2011 had made landmark decisions in regard to media, intended to spur sector transformation, thus promoting freedom.
These were, ONE, introduction of media self regulation, TWO, transformation of the state broadcaster into a public broadcaster, THREE, relieve MHC of regulatory responsibilities so that it solely focus on media capacity development, FOUR, privatize state-owned newspapers to eliminate possible unfair competition and, FIVE, set up a government communications agency to ease dealings with the media.
A quick scan through the above five decisions will easily indicate to you that they were made with a hindsight to accelerate the promotion of Press Freedom as well as boost media development going forward.
We have also since sanctioned a survey called Rwanda Media Barometer, which shall be measuring media reform progress in verifiable terms to inform policy makers, but also importantly to give feedback to other media partners and stakeholders.
Since 1994, Rwandans have made a commitment to gradually transform media in the country into a genuine stakeholder in national life, and the progress has been reallyimpressive. Our goal is to create a viable media sector with a business mind, an ambition to prosper, built on professional ethical standards and entrepreneurial acumen.
For this to be realized we have to refine the legal framework, develop media capacity, attract sizable investments into the sector as well as encourage community participation. All this we have been doing concurrently, and the activities herein are what constitute the Rwanda Media Sector Reform.
For some time now as you must be aware, Rwanda has embraced Information and Communications Technologies with increased passion. One component of this which we are quite enthusiastic about is new media.
Government is exploiting the phenomenon to establish diverse intra-communication networks among citizens to catalyze economic, social and political development as well as promote cultural cohesion.
Our target is to use social media to raise community participation in civic matters affecting them through open debates that should translate into actions.The objective is to help raise community awareness of the abundant opportunities out there while encouraging collective involvement in tapping them.
In conclusion I would like to reiterate Government of Rwanda’s commitment to continue promoting Press Freedom for the good of our people. We are determined to make use of emerging information technologies to reach out to every citizen for engagement and to raise our stake in global affairs.
Our goal shall remain to hinge participatory governance on free speech for socio-politicalemancipation, economic transformationand cultural advancement being the ultimate goals. Our intention is to construct a media scene that is sensitive to our past, responsive to the present and ambitious to Rwanda’s future.
Rwandans believe this is the kind of media suitable for our society and we have the means to achieve our objectives.
I wish you all a happy World Press Freedom Day,
The Author is the Minister of Local Government
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