Wednesday, October 11, 2006 Wenceslao: Media and the ideology of hate By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
Criticisms hurled by some people against media workers who seem to be urging so-called vigilantes to continue killing suspected criminals in Cebu City reminded me of the conviction by an international court of three journalists for fueling the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The 2003 landmark decision dwelt on the use of media to “disseminate hate.”
The orgy of killing in that African country began on April 6, 1994 after a plane carrying the Rwandan and Burundian presidents was shot down near Kigali. In over 100 days, Hutu extremists killed about 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates in an organized slaughter. Before that, ethnic and political tension was simmering in Rwanda.
The trial by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda noted media’s role in the genocide. A Washington Post report quoted lead prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow as saying that the use of “hate media” helped explain how ordinary Rwandans---even children and grandparents---were influenced to participate in the killings.
“All Tutsis will perish. They will disappear from the earth. We strike them down with arms. Slowly, slowly, slowly, we kill them like rats,” was one of the calls from a Hutu radio. Phrases like "go to work" and "the graves are not yet full" were read by radio disc jockeys. A newspaper called on citizens to exterminate the "cockroach Tutsis."
Sentenced to life imprisonment were Ferdinand Nahimana, founding member of Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines or RTLM, and Hassan Ngeze, owner and editor of the Hutu newspaper Kangura. Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, another RTLM executive, was given a 35-year sentence, reduced to 27 years for time already served.
Kangura published what it called the Hutu Ten Commandments, telling people to kill. Nahimana, whose radio station was nicknamed Radio Machete, launched programs that broadcast the names and addresses of members of the country's Tutsi minority and of Hutus who sympathized with them.
"It's an extraordinarily important decision because it does recognize that media can be used to kill," said Alison DesForges, a New York-based expert on Rwanda. "Using media to disseminate hate. There is larger meaning for the whole world…that sends a message about the responsibility of the media."
By soaking their journalism in ethnic hatred, the three men turned their media into weapons of war, the international court said. It added: "The power of the media to create and destroy human values comes with great responsibility. Those who control the media are accountable for its consequences."
