[FoME] Neues Buch: The Media and the Rwanda Genocide

[Christoph Dietz]

THE MEDIA AND THE RWANDA GENOCIDE
Edited by Allan Thompson
Pluto Press/Fountain Publishers/IDRC 2007
ISBN 978-1-55250-338-6
480 pp.
Online version: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-106013-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html 

The news media played a crucial role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide: local
media fueled the killings, while the international media either ignored
or seriously misconstrued what was happening. This is the first book to
explore both sides of that media equation. The book examines how local
radio and print media were used as a tool of hate, encouraging
neighbours to turn against each other. It also presents a critique of
international media coverage of the cataclysmic events in Rwanda.
Bringing together local reporters and commentators from Rwanda,
high-profile Western journalists, and leading media theorists, this is
the only book to identify and probe the extent of the media’s
accountability. It also examines deliberations by the International
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on the role of the media in the genocide. 
 
This book is a startling record of the dangerous influence that the
media can have when used as a political tool or when news organizations
and journalists fail to live up to their responsibilities. The authors
put forward suggestions for the future by outlining how we can avoid
censorship and propaganda, and by arguing for a new responsibility in
media reporting. The book includes an opening statement from Kofi Annan
and an introduction by Senator Roméo Dallaire.

THE EDITOR
Allan Thompson is a Professor of Journalism at Carleton University in
Ottawa, Canada, and a columnist with the Toronto Star, Canada’s
largest circulation daily newspaper. After working as a reporter with
the Toronto Star for 17 years, Thompson took up a teaching position at
Carleton in 2003 and now heads a media capacity-building project in
Rwanda called the Rwanda Initiative.

CONTENT
Statement Kofi Annan
Preface and introduction Allan Thompson
The media dichotomy Roméo Dallaire
Rwanda: walking the road to genocide Gerald Caplan

Part 1: Hate media in Rwanda

* Call to genocide: radio in Rwanda, 1994 Alison Des Forges
* RTLM propaganda: the democratic alibi Jean-Pierre Chrétien
* Kangura: the triumph of propaganda refined Marcel Kabanda
* Rwandan private print media on the eve of the genocide Jean-Marie
Vianney Higiro
* Echoes of violence: considerations on radio and genocide in Rwanda
Darryl Li
* RTLM: the Medium that Became a Tool for Mass Murder Mary Kimani
* The effect of RTLM’s rhetoric of ethnic hatred in rural Rwanda
Charles Mironko
* Journalism in a Time of Hate Media Thomas Kamilindi

Part 2: International coverage of the genocide

* Reporting the genocide Mark Doyle
* Who failed in Rwanda, journalists or the media? Anne Chaon
* Reporting Rwanda: the media and the aid agencies Lindsey Hilsum
* Limited vision: how both the American media and government failed
Rwanda Steven Livingston
* Missing the story: the media and the Rwandan genocide Linda
Melvern
* What did they say? African media coverage of the first 100 days of
the Rwandan crisis Emmanuel C. Alozie
* Exhibit 467: genocide through a camera lens Nick Hughes
* Media failure over Rwanda’s genocide Tom Giles
* A genocide without images: white film noirs Edgar Roskis
* Notes on Circumstances that Facilitate Genocide: the Attention
Given to Rwanda by the Media and Others Outside Rwanda Before 1990 Mike
Dottridge
* The media’s failure: a reflection on the Rwandan genocide Richard
Dowden
* How the media missed Rwandan genocide Alan J. Kuperman
* An analysis of news magazine coverage of the Rwanda crisis in the
United States Melissa Wall

Part 3: Journalism as genocide: the Media Trial

* The verdict: summary judgement from the Media Trial
* The pre-genocide case against Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles
Collines Simone Monasebian
* The challenges in prosecuting print media for incitement to
genocide Charity Kagwi-Ndungu
* “Hate media” * crimes against humanity and genocide:
opportunities missed by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Jean-Marie Biju-Duval
* A lost opportunity for justice: why did the ICTR not prosecute
gender propaganda? Binaifer Nowrojee

Part 4: After the genocide and the way forward

* Intervening to prevent genocidal violence: the role of the media
Frank Chalk
* Information in crisis areas as a tool for peace: the Hirondelle
experience Philippe Dahinden
* The use and abuse of media in vulnerable societies Mark Frohardt
and Jonathan Temin
* Censorship and propaganda in post-genocide Rwanda Lars Waldorf
* PG * parental guidance or portrayal of genocide: the comparative
depiction of mass murder in contemporary cinema Michael Dorland
* The responsibility to report: a new journalistic paradigm Allan
Thompson

Bibliography