Two journalists in Rwanda have been given prison sentences in separate cases in the past few days. Newspaper editor Asumani Niyonambaza was sentenced to two years in prison. Reporter Amani Ntakundi got a three-month sentence.
“There were absolutely no grounds for these jails sentences,” Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has said. “Trials, threats, intimidation and smears are all used to punish independent journalists in Rwanda. We urge the judges who convicted these journalists to reverse their decisions.”
Niyonambaza, the editor of the Kinyarwanda-language fortnightly Rugari, received his sentence on August 7 from the Nyarugenge district court in the capital, Kigali, after being convicted of trying to extort 500,000 Rwandan francs (630 euros) from a businessman in return for not publishing an article about him.
Two other journalists, radio presenters Frank Kalisa and Richard Rutagwenda of privately-owned Contact FM, were acquitted on the same charge. Niyonambaza, who is being held in the main Kigali prison, has appealed against his conviction.
Ntakundi, who works for the fortnightly Rushyashya, received his sentenced from a Gacaca (special people’s court for crimes relating to the 1994 genocide) in the southern city of Butare for taking photos while covering a trial on August 5.
As he had a permit issued by the national agency for Gacaca courts, Ntakundi thought he was allowed to take photos. But the court ruled that he was disrupting its work and ordered him detained on the spot for a three-month period. He was taken to Butare prison.
The two jail sentences were imposed in the same week that Umuseso, a weekly often targetted by the Rwandan authorities, was suspended for three months.
