The Burundian media regulator announced on Wednesday, March 29, 2022, the “reopening” of British radio BBC. Since being elected in June 2020, President Évariste Ndayishimiye has given several signs of openness. In January 2021, he notably called on the National Communication Council (CNC) to speak with the media under sanctions to turn the page. Things are moving, but problems of freedom of expression persist for the NGO Reporters without Borders.
Officially, the National Communication Council (CNC) had suspended the broadcast on May 4, 2018 from the BBC and American VOA radio for ” Breaches of the law governing the press and of ethics “, before withdrawing his authorization to operate on British radio the following year, despite his protests. The antenna is now restored. Reporters Without Borders, an NGO defending the media, welcomes a new positive signal sent by Gitega, but the organization warns: ” this is slow and limited progress », recalling that it took more than a year between the speech of President Évariste Ndayishimiye and the lifting of sanctions against the BBC.
Signature of a charter
So far, only two of Burundi’s four independent radio and television stations destroyed by security forces in 2015 have been able to resume their broadcasts so far. But they had to sign a charter that restricts their freedom of speech. The National Communication Council had initially presented a text close to this charter for signature on British radio. ” Unacceptable for the BCC. Lengthy negotiations therefore took place between the two parties. They just finishedthere is little, on a document very close to the old convention which bound them, according to our sources.
There remains the Voice of America (VOA), whose case was not mentioned on Wednesday. The Burundian government continues to demand, before allowing it to rebroadcast, that it dismiss a Burundian journalist, Patrick Nduwimana, sentenced to life imprisonment for his alleged participation in the 2015 putsch attempt, in a trial called ” of iniquity by the international community.
From “ journalists continue to be blacklisted »
Finally, RSF also recalls that “ journalists continue to be blacklisted in Burundi, denouncing a culture of repression that persists in the country. Those inside the country are under pressure and unable to express themselves freely, while more than a hundred others are forced to live in exile.