Reporting Rwanda’s big brother problem
When it comes to the current state of journalism, resources in many organizations have been decimated by declining advertising revenues and massive rounds of layoffs. Despite this climate, Anjan Sundaram has made a career of reporting on Central Africa and the Middle East for The New York Times, The Associated Press and a slew of marquee media organizations. His second book, Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship, does an excellent job of describing Rwanda’s news industry following the genocidal mass slaughter of Tutsi in Rwanda and the brutal conditions many journalists face on a daily basis.
Although Sundaram was in Rwanda’s capital city of Kigali to teach a small group of journalists reporting skills and critical thinking against worsening press conditions during a period when the country received billions in aid, his account of his life in Rwanda describes events, attitudes and behaviours eerily similar to the ones in George Orwell’s 1984.
If it sounds like a cliché, Sundaram’s description of spies everywhere, community police, the devotion of the group Intore, the symbolism in Kigali’s brightly lit but empty streets and the scene of citizens praying to a photograph of President Paul Kagame to display their loyalty make the connection as clear as the glass in the film cameras his students still use. Even the horrific events of the country’s genocide are used to manipulate its people on a daily basis.
In his plain language and vivid reporting of events, Sundaram explains how his small group of journalists eventually fight, flee, get arrested, convert, disappear, or in one case, die while driving home.
Sundaram also writes of how difficult it is to simply talk to other citizens and discover when government initiatives have led to health crises or even more deaths. The absolute trust in the president’s actions, even when proven to be incredibly detrimental to the basic survival of Rwanda’s citizens, is astonishing.
It’ s also heartbreaking. Sundaram’s account of his time in Kigali and the countryside details the deep betrayal felt when some of his students actually join Rwanda’s government. It’s the result of there being so few options available to them, and the feelings of helplessness that go along with such limitations.
The lessons in Sundaram’s book are simple: Principled journalists die, while the defectors get a black Mercedes.
Eventually, Sundaram writes about being put into the awkward position of having to choose whether or not to become involved in the issue of press freedom himself when a student of his asks for help fleeing the country. The words from his pupil Gibson, whose writing gifts are eventually eroded by never- ending paranoia, are haunting for anyone: “Will you just stand again and do nothing?”
By examining the internal conflict of being asked to intervene when it isn’t your place to do so, even with the full knowledge of how many have already suffered due to a lack of action, Sundaram confronts the idea that reporters and journalists need to remain objective in a situations where it seems nearly pointless to give the other side equal consideration.
From this self- examination, Sundaram is equally unflinching in describing how other countries and even the United Nations help spread the dictatorship’s propaganda around the world through events and funding, which make up a significant portion of the government’s budget each year.
However, despite all of the inequality that Sundaram describes, there remains hope. He finds it in the power of accurate reporting. His faith in the written word is perhaps best outlined in a conversation with his friend Moses: “People get nervous when you write,” Moses said. “Writing also leaves proof. If you don’t write notes, the world can be made different. People’s memories can always be questioned.”
Bad News is an honest, well- written portrayal of both the current political situation in Rwanda and the work many journalists sacrifice their lives for. It highlights injustice and the importance of journalism against powerful organizations with a vital urgency, in Rwanda, but by extension, around the world.