Background
For the past half-century, recurrent violence has plagued Africa's Great Lakes Region, which includes Burundi, the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, the western part of Tanzania, the southern part of Uganda, and parts of Kenya. With an estimated population of 110 million, the region is one of the most densely populated areas on earth. Many of its people speak dialects of the same language, share similar cultures and have interacted with one another for more than 2,000 years.
In the early 1990s, the already violent climate took a turn for the worse. The Rwandan genocide killed close to a million people in 1994, more than 350,000 lives were lost in Burundi between 1993 and 2004, while civil wars and foreign invasions over the years have led to the death of an estimated 3.5 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Such overwhelming violence has left most people traumatized, and their unhealed wounds may fuel further cycles of violence.
The 1990s in Central Africa saw the emergence of a certain form of "information pluralism." This could have performed a key function in maintaining the democratic processes that were just getting their start in the region, but the events in Rwanda in 1994 are evidence that this very pluralism was used to propagate hate. The appearance of hate radio stations in particular has had a devastating effect on efforts to develop the legal framework for a genuinely independent and free press.
Hate radio stations are defined as "encouraging violent activities, tension or hatred between races, ethnic or social groups, or countries for political goals and/or to foster conflict by offering one-sided and biased views and opinions, and resorting to deception." (source: Radio Netherlands website). The Rwandan Radio Broadcaster RTLM ( Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines ) fit that description perfectly. Its entertaining and musical broadcasts included exaggerations of a Tutsi threat and glorification of Hutus' indigenous culture, as opposed to vilification of supposedly "foreign" Tutsis. Its broadcasts were instrumental in convincing Hutus to believe in the value of an attempt to exterminate all Tutsis, and led to the world's first genocide trial against a journalist at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha. Here, the chief editor of RTLM was found guilty of genocide and sentenced to a maximum prison term for the act of broadcasting alone. The station had come about through an opening of the Rwandan airwaves and was officially set up by a private consortium. It is no small wonder that Rwandese authorities now exercise caution when granting licenses to private broadcasters.
The risks of freedom of expression also became apparent in the DRC, where lack of regulation led to a wide-open media landscape that allowed hate speech to be used openly during the country's historic election campaign. This led indirectly to violent armed confrontations in the capital of Kinshasa , resulting in hundreds of casualties.
In Burundi on the other hand, free radio stations played such a pivotal role in ensuring that the population received adequate and reliable information that the free broadcasters in that country worry about becoming targets for anyone intent on destabilizing the country.
By educating citizens to be critical consumers of media messages and be aware of the effect of their own fears on their actions, Radio Benevolencija seeks to provide a new kind of instrument to strengthen the psychological foundations for peaceful interaction between citizens and authorities. By showing authorities that citizens can be educated to resist incitement, fears of opening the media landscape in those countries can be counteracted. In this way, Radio Benevolencija contributes to the institution of a democratic and hate-free media landscape in the region.
Evaluation
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