It is all systems go after journalists elected their representatives to the national media self-regulation commission.

Six months after the self regulatory law was adopted, Fred Muvunyi of Izuba Rirashe was elected to chair the commission.

Other officials include Cleophas Barore of the Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (vice-chairman) Emma Claudine Nirenganya Salus (Secretary-General) and Prince Bahati as a commissioner.

Two experts — Ingabire Marie Maculate from Transparency Rwanda and Laurent Mongori, a lawyer were will also sit on the board.

Turning point

The elected officials will take over responsibilities of the Media High Council (MHC) to pave the way for self-regulation.

The new law, according to stakeholders, was a victory for the media in Rwanda and will be a turning point for the press freedom in the country.

READ: Journalists upbeat over self regulation

The government has been heavily criticised over its grip on the media industry, which placed the country among countries with no press freedom.

This was partly blamed on lack of laws to govern the industry.

Dr Christopher Kayumba, a lecturer at the National University of Rwanda, said: “After media law was put in place in 1991, many media outlets were then born, but some of them, in one way or another contributed to the 1994, genocide.”

He added that after the 1994 genocide there were still no laws on media as office of the prosecutor handled issues arising from the industry until 1998.

“There was no real state regulation or self regulation on media and only the prosecutor’s office handled media issues,” he said.

READ: Media self-regulation good for redemption of govt’s reputation

After 2002, Rwanda enacted a new media law, which stipulated regulations, but mainly for electronic media. In 2009, the law was reviewed, bringing both electronic and print media under one regulatory body — the Media High Council.

But journalists opposed regulation by the commission, leading to enactment of another law to usher in self-regulation.

Journalists argued that the Media High Council was a state agency and did not act in the interest of the profession.

On March 11, in an official gazette, the government released new media laws among them, self-regulation mechanism.

‘Every journalist has freedom’

Article 8 in the new law reads: “Every journalist has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the right to seek, receive, give and broadcast information and ideas through any media.”

Upon the release of the gazette notice, media fraternity constituted an interim committee to oversee a transition.

The interim committee prepared a framework for self-regulation, which include functions, roles, mandate of the commission among others.

Media practitioners recommended that the organisation structure of the self-regulation body should have two organs — board/ethics committee and secretariat.

The board or ethics committee shall act as the highest organ that adjudicates cases or complaints in the media self-regulation process.

This role will involve considering complaints, determining their merit and adjudicating cases as well as representing the broader interests of the profession of journalism through enforcing the code of ethics and defending society or media consumers in general.

The Secretariat on the other hand shall have the responsibility of running the day-to-day administrative affairs of the body; including receiving and preparing complaints for the ethics committee as well as providing administrative services to the committee and the board.