By Tom Rhodes/East Africa
Representative
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Alexandre
Niyungeko, of the Burundi Union of Journalists, speaks out about the
restrictive press law. (IWACU)
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If
the state decides that a journalist's article in Burundi jeopardizes someone's
"moral integrity" under the country's Media
Law it can demand that the journalist reveals sources, and it can suspend
the publication.
"It's a backwards, freedom-killing law," said
Alexandre Niyungeko, the founder and head of the 300-member Burundi Union of
Journalists. Despite the press fraternity's best efforts, including an appeal
replete with 15,000 signatures from organizations, including the Committee to
Protect Journalists, urging the president to desist
from signing it, President Pierre Nkurunziza passed the bill into law on June 4, 2013.
Ruling
party officials claim that the law helps "professionalize" the media
and curb reporting that incites hatred in a country where about 300,000 people
have died in ethnic clashes between 1994 and 2005, according to news
reports. However, it prevents the press from reporting on issues including
national defense and state security by imposing fines of up to $6,000 and
prison terms, according to news reports.
Burundi
journalists view the legislation as a tool to curb investigative reporting by
using its sweeping terms to jail critics, upholding difficult professional
requirements such as making all journalists have a university degree, and
weakening the protection of sources.
Burundi journalists have already faced at
least four cases where state prosecutors have demanded information about
sources since the law was passed, local journalists told me.
In April, for
example, authorities twice summoned Radio Bonesha reporter Alexis Nkeshimana and Radio Publique Africaine reporter
Eloge Niyonzima, demanding that the journalists named sources quoted in stories
about the alleged distribution of weapons to a youth movement affiliated to the
ruling party, the National Council of Defense of Democracy - Forces for the
Defense of Democracy, the same sources told me.
The journalists, who both work
for independent stations, were forced to reveal their contacts, who have now
been summoned by a judge to the next court session, Radio Bonesha director
Patrick Nduwimana said. The final hearing is due in January.
The
requirement compelling journalists to reveal their sources, which carries a
prison term of up to five years for those who refuse, has scared away potential
informants for the media, preventing the press from holding public figures to
account. Yet despite the potential risks journalists face under this
legislation, Burundi's plucky independent press continues to cover sensitive
issues, and is challenging the law in court.
After
a July 2013 constitutional challenge resulted in only minor amendments, the Burundi
Union of Journalists linked up with the Media Legal Defence
Initiative (MLDI), an organization that provides legal defense for
independent media, to launch a legal challenge at the East African Court of Justice.
Working with lead Kenyan
lawyer Donald Deya and Burundian lawyers Armel Niyongere and François Nyamoya,
the union and MLDI started the hearing on Thursday at the court's headquarters
in Arusha, Tanzania.
MLDI
legal director Nani Jansen hopes that the regional court grants the request to
repeal the law, and that a positive ruling will influence other countries who
harbor similar anti-press laws. "It would send a strong signal that these
laws violate international standards," Jansen said.
"This will
hopefully be a deterrent for other governments to keep such legislation on the
books, as well as encouragement for the press that such bad laws actually can
be challenged."
The
court's decision, expected in February or March next year, is binding in East
African Community partner states such as Burundi.
Tom Rhodes is CPJ's East Africa representative, based in Nairobi.
Rhodes is a founder of southern Sudan’s first independent newspaper. Follow him
on Twitter: @africamedia_CPJ
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