HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2019-04-18, Page 10PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2019.
It has been 25 years since the tiny
African nation of Rwanda slid into
the abyss. The killings happened in
broad daylight, yet many of us —
individuals, media outlets, entire
governments — turned away, or
failed to grasp the unfolding events.
And that includes me. As a
reporter covering foreign affairs
issues for the Toronto Star at the
time, I somehow didn’t grasp what
was happening in Rwanda and
remained as oblivious as many of
my colleagues. I will forever be
ashamed.
When human beings are at their
worst — as they most certainly were
in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide
— the world needs the institutions of
journalism and the media to be at
their best. Sadly, in Rwanda, the
media fell short.
Twenty-five years after the
Rwanda genocide, as similar
tragedies continue to unfold today,
there is still much to learn about the
role that media plays when mass
atrocity events threaten.
For that reason I travelled to
Rwanda to take part in ceremonies
marking the 25th anniversary, to
reconnect with friends there and to
promote my new book on media and
genocide. It was a remarkable return
to a country that I have visited nearly
20 times since 1996, as a reporter, as
a researcher on the role of media
during genocide and as a university
professor.
My week in Rwanda for the 25th
anniversary events was an emotional
roller coaster. It is hard to express
how powerful it was to be in the
national soccer stadium on April 7.
Nearly 30,000 people were jammed
into the stadium that became a place
of refuge during the genocide, where
thousands sought sanctuary under
the UN’s protection from the
machete-wielding crowds out in the
streets.
During the evening vigil, the
president lit the first candle in the
centre of the stadium, then all
around, in a kind of wave spreading
through the crowd, people lit candles
or held aloft their cell phone
flashlights, a sparkling moment of
hope in the darkness.
Confronted by Rwanda’s horrors
in 1994, international news media at
times turned away, or muddled the
story when they did pay attention by
casting it in a formulaic way as
anarchic tribal warfare rather than an
organized genocide. Hate media
outlets in Rwanda played a role in
laying the groundwork for genocide,
and then encouraged the
extermination campaign.
The lessons of Rwanda, in some
respects a textbook case, should
have been clear. But a quarter
century later, these are lessons that
we still struggle to absorb.
The global media landscape has
been transformed since the 1994
Rwanda genocide. We are now
saturated with social media,
frequently generated by non-
journalists. Mobile phones are
everywhere. And in many quarters,
the traditional news media business
model continues to founder. Against
that backdrop, it is more important
than ever to examine the nexus
between the media and the forces
that give rise to mass atrocity.
And at times, it seems that those
who abuse the power of media and
communications to demonize and
divide get the upper hand, echoing
on new social media platforms the
same hate and prejudice as that
broadcast all those years ago by the
Rwanda hate radio station RTLM.
Social media tools can be used to
inform and engage, but also - in an
echo of hate radio in Rwanda - can
be used to demonize opponents and
mobilize extremism. We are left with
many troubling questions, still
unresolved despite the passage of
time since Rwanda.
My new publication from CIGI
Press – Media and Mass Atrocity:
the Rwanda Genocide and Beyond –
documents an effort to revisit the
Rwanda case study while also
casting forward to other scenes of
mass atrocity where media have
played a role.
The collection of papers – 27
chapters in all – begins with a
foreword and introduction from one
of the actors in this drama, retired
Canadian general Roméo Dallaire,
who was the commander of the
doomed United Nations
peacekeeping force in Rwanda. In
his introductory chapter, Dallaire
argues that media can be used as a
weapon by combatants in a conflict
but should also be deployed by those
who seek to prevent or staunch the
fighting. Dallaire’s focus is on how
the UN mission that he commanded
failed to use news media tools
effectively even as proponents of the
genocide dominated the airwaves
with their hate radio messaging.
The Rwanda genocide sparked the
usual calls of “never again” and yet,
in the years since, the world has
witnessed numerous mass atrocity
events that could be called “echoes
of Rwanda.” The collection applies a
media lens to the cases of Darfur,
Central African Republic, the
Yazidis, Syria, Myanmar and South
Sudan while harkening back to
Rwanda.
The impact of social media as a
new actor is examined through
chapters on social media use by the
Islamic State, in Syria, and in other
contexts across the developing
world.
Media and Mass Atrocity: the
Rwanda Genocide and Beyond
questions what the lessons of
Rwanda mean now, in an age of
communications so dramatically
influenced by social media and the
relative decline of traditional news
media. And in the end, there are still
far more questions than answers.
In my own experience, I was able
to contribute to international
awareness of the events in Rwanda –
albeit years after the fact – by
documenting the case of the video
footage captured on April 11, 1994
by British journalist Nick Hughes,
showing the deaths of two of the
early victims of the genocide. Years
later, and with the help of others, I
was able to identify those who had
been killed in the famous footage –
Gabriel Kagaba and Justine
Mukangango – and to tell their story
through the recollections of family
members who survived. The
enormous response to the original
Toronto Star story about the Hughes
footage made me realize that part of
what had been missing from the
coverage of events in 1994 was a
human face.
The most powerful journalism is
Thompson reflects on Rwanda 25 years later
A time for reflection
Goderich’s Allan Thompson, now the Huron-Bruce federal Liberal candidate, was a reporter
for the Toronto Star at the time of the Rwandan genocide and he has since been back nearly
20 times. His new book, Media and Mass Atrocity: the Rwanda Genocide and Beyond, reflects
not only on his time in Rwanda, but on the media’s responsibility in times of unthinkable
tragedy while the media landscape continues to shift. (Courtesy photo)
ENTRY DEADLINE FAST APPROACHING!
By Allan Thompson
Special to The Citizen
25 years
Goderich’s Allan Thompson, left, is seen here having a conversation with Rosalie
Uzamukunda, centre, who lost her husband Gabriel Kagaba and oldest daughter Justine
Mukangango in the Rwandan genocide. The killing was one of just a few caught on video 25
years ago at the height of the tragedy. (Courtesy photo)
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