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Envoy urges Rwanda not to take BBC to court

Saturday March 07 2015
bbc

Women in Kigali protest against the BBC’s controversial documentary, Rwanda’s Untold Story. PHOTO | FILE |

Rwanda has been asked not to take legal action against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) after a commission established to investigate allegations of genocide denial recommended that the government suspends agreements with the broadcaster and take it to court.

Last week, a commission established by the government to investigate the BBC documentary Rwanda’s Untold Story, which was shown on BBC 2 channel, released a report recommending that legal action be taken against the broadcaster for denying and trivialising the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

William Gelling, the UK High Commissioner to Rwanda, asked the government not to take action that will lead to the services of BBC being terminated in Rwanda.

“Specifically with respect to the commission’s findings, we have said that we hope very much that whatever the government chooses to do in response and however it chooses to implement those decisions, it manages to do so in a way that will allow BBC to begin broadcasting in the local language again as soon as possible,” Mr Gelling said.

Releasing the findings, commission head Martin Ngoga said the media house broke the law and failed to respect its own editorial values.

“There was a shortage of goodwill by the BBC in applying the content and spirit of the agreement that moderates its relationship with Rwanda,” the report reads.

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“For four months, the committee met, studied, learnt from varied sources, analysed, deliberated on, and made conclusions about the allegations against the BBC,” Mr Ngoga, a former prosecutor general said.

READ: Commission to investigate BBC to begin work as watchdog warns over attacks on media

Evidence presented to the committee also showed recurrent transgressions on the part of the BBC with regard to the content of its Kinyarwanda programmes.

If the agreement is terminated, the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (Rura) will recall BBC’s frequency and licence to operate in Rwanda. Phil Clark, a UK-based genocide scholar who appeared before the commission to testify, said legal action and suspension of services would be an overreaction.

“When I appeared before the Ngoga commission, I argued against taking legal action against the BBC and instead advocated for going through the formal BBC complaints process. I don’t think the film is an example of ‘genocide denial’ but rather of a gross form of genocide revisionism. The nuances of this would get lost in an antagonistic court process,” Dr Clark told The EastAfrican, adding that the government would portray itself as reasonable and balanced by outlining in detail the various problems with the documentary in a formal complaint to the BBC.

READ: Rwanda media agency says BBC ban violates law

He added that a complaint of this nature, as opposed to a court case, would also force the BBC to divulge the materials that went into making the film — in particular what parts were excluded in order to give the revisionist account of the genocide, and why the filmmaker chose the interview subjects that she did.

“The BBC would also have to divulge the internal editorial process that allowed the film to be made in the first place. All of this is important for holding the BBC to account and none of this would be possible in a court case where the aim would be solely to determine whether or not the film amounted to genocide denial,” he said.

Media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders termed the recommendations that the Rwandan authorities should end local broadcasting by the BBC and bring legal proceedings against it as “shocking.”

“We are appalled by the commission of enquiry’s disproportionate recommendations. By trying to censor the BBC and impose a one-sided version of history that allows no debate, the commission is violating free speech and media freedom,” said Cléa Kahn-Sriber, the head of the Reporters Without Borders’ Africa desk.

“It should amend its findings in order not to censor what is Rwanda’s main independent news outlet, and the government should allow the BBC to reopen its local branch or else it will expose itself to further accusations of authoritarianism,” she added.

The final decision on the BBC’s fate will be taken by Rura after studying the commission’s report. The BBC affirmed its earlier stance of standing by the documentary.

“We are extremely disappointed by the findings of this commission. While we do not yet know the full implications for the BBC in Rwanda, we stand by our right to produce the independent journalism which has made us the world’s most trusted news source,” a statement from BBC said.

It added that the documentary, which was produced by a current affairs team in London and broadcast only in the UK, is currently going through the BBC’s robust editorial complaints process.

“This process has not yet concluded, but the provisional findings are that the documentary does not breach the BBC’s editorial standards. We strongly reject any suggestion that any part of this documentary constitutes genocide denial,” the broadcaster said.

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