Article

Silencing the voice of the voiceless: The destruction of the independent broadcasting sector in Burundi

Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the author.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.

... In this case, 'both forces will battle for dominance, with one eventually emerging as the dominant force' (Ibelema et al. 2000, 111). This applies, in particular, to Burundi, where the political system (increasingly authoritarian and repressive) and the journalistic environment (increasingly liberal due to international donor support) have developed in diametrical directions since 2010, leading eventually to the destruction of the independent broadcasting sector in May 2015 (Frère 2016). When the forces of control are strong and the forces of freedom are weak, then 'the press system tends [to shift] towards controlled expression ' (Ibelema et al. 2000, 111). ...
... A 'POST-CONFLICT' SYNDROME It is important not to overlook the fact that Burundi, Rwanda, and the DRC share bloodstained histories that have had an impact on journalism and press freedom (Frère 2007). Since 1994, they have gone through brutal wars and conflicts that have resulted in the death of many people and traumatized the general population. ...
... In that context, new press laws were adopted in Rwanda (in 2002) and Burundi (in 2003), while a transitory regulatory body, the High Media Authority, was established in the DRC in 2003 as well. Yet, in many respects, the legal framework and regulatory authorities have remained toothless or have even been used to repress journalistic freedom (Frère 2009). ...
Chapter
Full-text available
Based on the example of three francophone African countries—Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)—this chapter enquires about the relevant factors influencing journalistic freedom in (post-)conflict societies. Using 132 expert interviews conducted between July 2014 and January 2016, the study concludes that press freedom, although enshrined in media legislation and promoted through local professional and international media assistance organizations in the region (such as Search for Common Ground, Internews, or the Panos Institute), faces many constraints at every level in the three countries but also that spaces of freedom sometimes exist beyond expectations. Against the theoretical backdrop developed by Ibelema et al. (2000, 98–115), the results show that in times of crisis and conflict, in particular, politics is the dominant factor influencing press freedom, while in more stable periods, other factors, such as economic constraints, are equally important. Nevertheless, each factor includes a wide diversity of internal dynamics, to the extent that one can discern similarities and differences between countries but not numerically assess and rank their levels of press freedom.
... The Arusha agreement contained provisions to increase freedom of press and expression in the country (Palmans, 2005, 2006, Frère, 2011, 2015bKane and Bizimana, 2016). In stark contrast with the preceding decades, Burundi would soon become acclaimed in Africa and beyond as a model of peace-building and press freedom (Curtis, 2012;Frère, 2016). The mid-2000s saw the development of a high-quality media which worked at bringing the different ethnic and political groups together and prepared the population for socio-political changes such as the reintegration of the former rebels into the army and police corps. ...
... Authors such as Frère (2015a) and Tayeebwa (2017) argue that the media managed to 'de-ethnicise' interpersonal relationships around the country. In particular, FM radio stations set the pace of public life in a country where the electrification rate is still below 5 percent (Frère, 2016). The RPA, Radio Publique Africaine, founded by soonto-be opposition politician Alexis Sinduhije with the support of soon-to-be United States ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, exemplified a fresh and dynamic freedom of speech with radio shows giving ordinary people a chance to be heard and to discuss their opinions and experiences. ...
... More than 200,000 people have fled the country, thousands have been arrested, a failed coup d'état has taken place and hundreds of people have been killed (Jamar, 2016). Moreover, the level of attention over Burundi from the Western media increased as the government tried to stop the flow of information regarding the escalation of violence by banning traditional media -mainly radio stations -from reporting the protests and because the urban youth chose to use social media in furtherance to coordinate protests and inform the international community about the conflict (Frère, 2016). ...
Article
Burundi has garnered international headlines since April 2015 insofar as the country entered a serious political crisis and fell into conflict. The utilization of social media by the leadership amid the chaos and the lack of studies regarding the top-down uses of social media prompted the authors to explore the Twitter usage by the Burundian presidency and the presidency’s spokesperson. Drawing upon quantitative content analysis and the Discourse Historical Approach to Critical Discourse Studies, they introduce an interdisciplinary approach that brings together different disciplines and is intended to provide a systematic analysis of hegemonic discourse and hegemonic struggle in the Twitter arena. Their research is developed through three main stages that interact and inform each other in order to combine quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches and provide an interdisciplinary framework for studying social media texts. The authors’ research is developed through three main research areas that interact and inform each other: hegemonic discourses on democracy and elections; hegemonic discourses on violence and conflict; and hegemonic discourses on foreign media representations. By employing quantitative content analysis and the Discourse Historical Approach, they intend to present an in-depth analysis of the Twitter accounts of the Burundian presidency and the presidency’s spokesperson as an arena of institutional communication and hegemonic struggle. They first briefly review the conflict under study and present main concepts that dominate this article such as discourse and hegemony. Thereafter, they present their interdisciplinary approach as an adequate methodology to analyse, understand and explain the intricate complexities of hegemonic discourse that may evolve on social media. Finally, they proceed to the analysis of the most characteristic tweets to illustrate the significance of their interdisciplinary approach to the study of Twitter.
... This article focuses on Burundi, a small country in Central Africa. Burundi has been facing unprecedented changes in its media landscape since May 2015 when, within 24 hours, the independent broadcasting sector was eradicated (Frère, 2016). For a decade, Burundian radio stations had been held up as a model in Francophone Africa. ...
Article
Full-text available
In Burundi, a small landlocked post-conflict country in Central Africa, the independent broadcasting sector was severely undermined in May 2015, following a coup attempt against the regime of President Pierre Nkurunziza. More than 80 journalists, some of them accused of being accomplices to the putschists, were threatened and forced to leave the country. Their outlets were damaged and forbidden to operate. Shown as a model of ‘professionalism’, ‘independence’ and ‘pluralism’ until then, journalism in Burundi has subsequently faced huge challenges, both inside the country (where the space for free speech keeps shrinking despite a pluralist façade) and outside (where Burundian journalists in exile have established alternative media). This article identifies how the professional identity of the journalists has been affected by these two phenomena: the challenges of working from abroad as well as the growing control on free media faced by those still operating from within the country. Based on extensive interviews, the author shows the extent to which Burundian journalists have lost self-confidence and trust in their ability to perform their professional ethos and the role they believe they should play in society.
... Furthermore, it led to unprecedented street protests in the capital city Bujumbura that culminated in a failed coup d'état on 13 May 2015. In the violence that followed the coup attempt, independent media outlets were closed down and many civil society activists were forced into exile (Frère 2016). Hundreds of civilians were tortured and/or killed, while more than 200,000 people fled to neighbouring countries. ...
Article
Full-text available
The nomination of incumbent Pierre Nkurunziza to stand again for president in the 2015 national elections triggered a political and security crisis in Burundi. A crucial element in the controversy around his third term was the legality of his candidacy. This paper analyses how domestic and international actors responded to the legal loopholes that characterised Burundi’s term-limit legislation. Three responses are distinguished. First, quite paradoxically, an argument was put forward by thirdterm supporters that stressed constitutional legality, a value usually invoked by third-term opponents. Second, a peace agreement was referred to as a source of legitimacy and as a legal norm. Third, a Constitutional Court ruling was invoked to address the legal loophole. Despite the apparent irrelevance of legal norms in an increasingly authoritarian environment, law significantly shaped the dynamics of the third-term debate and of the wider crisis. The Burundi case also illustrates the limitations of constitutional engineering of democratic governance. © 2016, GIGA German Institute for Global and Area Studies. All rights reserved.
... increased political activity by ordinary Burundians became more evident in post-conflict Burundi. At the same time, the opposition parties, media and independent associations started to challenge political power making use of newly acclaimed freedom of speech and space for political criticism even when faced with growing repression enacted by the ruling party (Frère 2015(Frère , 2016. This attitude is somewhat unprecedented in a country where scholars have underlined the persistence of an 'obedience culture' and a traditional 'submission to authority' (Reyntjens 1987;De lame 1996). in order to understand the shift from 'passive' attitude to more outright protest, it is necessary to consider the evolution of Burundi's dominant political culture, paying particular attention to the use of military power. ...
Article
The aim of this article is to understand the socio-political evolutions in post-war Burundi, through the analysis of the individuals’ political mobilisation (both civilian and former combatants) and the dynamics of three party politics (Frodebu, Cndd-Fdd and Palipehutu-Fnl) in the aftermath of war. My purpose is to capture the viewpoint of individuals as party members, questioning how they get involved in politics, as well as to analyse how their partisan membership affects the political culture, the internal structure and the organisation of political parties. The article argues that mass violence (in 1972 and 1993) has engendered a political mobilisation process by drawing people into political life, encouraging the emergence of bottom-up democratic claims. The three political parties involved in this research have a different history, nature, development and position in the political chessboard which influenced the relationship between the leadership and the base, as well as their political attitudes.
Article
Since the renewed outbreak of the ongoing crisis in Burundi in May 2015, triggering a media crackdown, over one-third of the country’s reporters have gone into exile. They therefore joined an increasing number of journalists worldwide who are forced into exile. Between 2015 and 2021, many of the exiled Burundian journalists continued reporting for newly founded exile media in neighbouring Rwanda. Before their forced closure in 2021, these exile media had established themselves as successful outlets providing the only independent information from an otherwise blacked-out country. Based on semi-structured interviews with 10 exiled Burundian journalists conducted in Rwanda in 2020, this article exemplifies how the condition of exile impacts journalistic practice and norms, and renegotiates ideas of media professionalism. It is shown how Burundian exiled journalists display a strong personal conscience as journalists highlighting the voice of the voiceless and attempting to separate activism from their journalism. At the same time, the findings identify the main struggles of Burundian exiled journalists in maintaining operational objectivity, which depends on funding, providing balanced reporting without access to official sources and conducting verification of information in the unattainable field. These challenges are in line with the findings of several other case studies with exiled journalists from different regions. Therefore, this article complements the rapidly growing body of literature on exile journalism with a Global South perspective, which to date is not well represented on the map of exile journalism that mostly features cases of exile in the Global North. Furthermore, this article shows that situating exile experiences within existing theories and frameworks of journalism presents limits as exile journalism, as in the Burundian case, is journalism ‘in another form’ with new practices and renegotiated standards of professionalism.
Article
In 2015, many journalists left Burundi following the outbreak of violence caused by President Nkurunziza’s candidacy for a third presidential term. From abroad, several managed to continue their journalistic activities through social media. In this article, we present the findings of a study conducted among fifteen Burundian exiled journalists in Belgium supported by the association Ensemble-Groupe d’Aide aux Journalistes Exilés (En-GAJE). We observe how journalists understand and manage the emotions provoked by exposure to social media content in exile, and we analyse their knowledge of and attitude towards post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and secondary traumatic stress (STS). Our study highlights that while emotions are acknowledged by Burundian exiled journalists, emotional detachment remains a professional principle of reference for them; avoiding inactivity results to be the main coping strategy used to deal with work-related emotions and possible trauma, and this allows them to maintain their journalistic identity and authority on social media.
Article
De la fin des années 1990 à 2015, le paysage médiatique burundais fait figure d’exception en Afrique subsaharienne francophone. Mais en 2015, tout bascule. Cet article met au jour les enjeux médiatiques et politiques qui ont traversé l’histoire du Burundi, depuis les années 1990 jusqu’à aujourd’hui, pour éclairer une situation paradoxale à première vue : un paysage médiatique burundais jadis exemplaire, aujourd’hui contrôlé par le parti au pouvoir ; des journalistes burundais autrefois loués pour leur liberté de ton, désormais contraints à l’autocensure ou à l’exil ; des bailleurs de fonds historiquement très présents et aujourd’hui discrets ; et enfin, une communauté internationale longtemps investie dans le processus démocratique, aujourd’hui engagée dans une forme de normalisation de la situation, malgré les violations des droits humains.
Article
While an incredible series of twists characterized the fight against COVID-19 in Burundi and its narration, references to God have never been missing in the narratives around the disease. Trust in God represented one of the pillars of the government’s narrative, next to an attitude of ‘denialism’, and the fight against ‘fake news’. This article analyses the evolution of the narration of COVID-19 on Twitter during the first three phases of the fight against the disease, focusing on the use of the religious narrative. Within Burundi’s contemporary sociopolitical context, analysis of these narratives on social media best demonstrates how the fight against COVID-19 in Burundi was a fight for the control of the narrative, and by extension for political legitimacy.
Chapter
Neuere Forschung zu Legitimität verweist auf die Relevanz verschiedener Strategien mit deren Hilfe autoritäre Regime versuchen sich zu legitimieren. Bislang konzentrierte sich diese Forschung auf innerstaatliche Legitimationsstrategien, wobei die Anerkennung respektive Aberkennung von Legitimität durch internationale Akteure vernachlässigt wurde. In diesem Kapitel argumentieren wir jedoch, dass in der Analyse von Legitimationsstrategien das Zusammenspiel von innerstaatlichen und internationalen (De)Legitimationsdynamiken betrachtet werden muss. Entsprechend gehen wir in diesem Kapitel folgenden, die Forschung leitende Annahmen für autoritäre Regime nach. Erstens: Im Umgang mit autoritären Regimen werden Fragen der Legitimität und Legitimation lokaler Regime durch internationale Akteure untergeordnet behandelt. Zweitens: Durch ihren Einfluss auf autoritäre Legitimationsstrategien können internationale Akteure ungewollt zur Konsolidierung autoritärer Regime beitragen. Diese Annahmen beziehen sich auf die übergeordnete Forschungsfrage, inwiefern und mit welchem Effekt Legitimationsdynamiken autoritäre Legitimationsstrategien beeinflussen. Dieses Kapitel adressiert diese Fragen anhand der verschiedenen Legitimationsdynamiken vor, während und nach den Wahlen 2015 in Burundi. Wie das Beispiel Burundis zeigt, können internationale Akteure ein Regime durch ihre Intervention stärken. Paradoxerweise geschieht dies nicht nur durch Regime-legitimierende Strategien, sondern auch durch delegitimierende Aktivitäten. Daraus ergibt sich für internationale Akteure die Notwendigkeit, Legitimationsstrategien von Regierungen besser zu analysieren um deren strategische Adaption an legitimierende oder delegitimierende Aktivitäten zu antizipieren.
Chapter
Die Legitimität politischer Ordnung ist in den letzten Jahren zu einem wichtigen Referenzpunkt für die Analyse politischer Regime geworden. Das Konzept ist aber schwierig zu operationalisieren und zu messen – vor allem in Ländern, wo Legitimität eine besonders wichtige Ressource zu sein scheint (Fälle politischer Transformation und hoher Staatsfragilität). Dieses Kapitel gibt einen Überblick über den Forschungsstand. Es werden vier Messdimensionen unterschieden, die auf einem dialogischen Verständnis von Legitimität beruhen. Legitimierung, also die strategische Einwerbung von Legitimität, wird einerseits als Prozess verstanden, bei dem Legitimitätserwartungen der politischen Subjekte mit Leistungen des politischen Regimes verknüpft werden. Andererseits treffen die Legitimitätsansprüche der Herrschenden auf beobachtbare Verhaltensmuster der Beherrschten. Der Literaturüberblick macht deutlich, dass der dialogische Charakter von Legitimität nicht immer berücksichtigt wird. Im Ergebnis messen existierende Ansätze oft nur einzelne Aspekte von Legitimität bzw. verfehlen den Kern des Konzepts sogar völlig.
Chapter
Full-text available
After the outbreak of the 2015 political crisis in Burundi, many political opponents, activists and journalists fled the country and continued their engagement from abroad. As a result, an important part of Burundi’s political debate went online. For the diaspora, social media not only represented a fundamental channel to access information. When political authorities spread their messages on social platforms, the diaspora often reacted by addressing very direct accusations to them. In this virtual political arena, arguments were often proposed in a way that recalled the memory of the past and appealed to the ethnic belonging. Such approach not only concerned political issues but affected memory as well. In a previous study (Paviotti 2018), I showed that on Twitter, the figure of President Ntaryamira, which did not have a strong ethnic connotation before 2015, underwent a process of ethnicization that was particularly effective after the outbreak of the crisis. Thanks to different communication strategies, distinct communities emerged around Ntaryamira that progressively adopted ethnic and political traits. This paper aims to expand my previous study by focusing on interactions within and between such communities. On the one hand, the responsiveness to the messages proposed from political entrepreneurs will be analysed through a focus on likes, replies and retweets. The most responsive accounts will be identified, their (ethnic, political, or other) attributes will be observed, and the type of discourses they promoted will be determined. Possible fake accounts and bots will be pointed out in this phase. On the other hand, the type and frequency of the interactions among such communities will be examined. Specifically, it will be observed if the communication remained within the same group, or if interactions with the Out-group(s) took place. The aim is to analyse the ‘implementation’ of the process of ethnicization (Holst 2011) and to better delineate the characteristic of the communities that emerged around Ntaryamira. This will permit a better understanding of the process of ethnicization of memory on Twitter, and it will show the role of this social platform as a channel for a top-down, ethno-political propaganda and/or as a space where confrontations could take place between different groups.
Chapter
Following global patterns of inequalities in academic knowledge production, a substantial part of research in African media studies has been conducted by researchers from outside the continent and/or based in the West. This situation raises significant political and moral questions about conducting research in an unequal world: who benefits from this research? Do these researchers have particular kinds of moral and political responsibilities? At what point does knowledge production becomes knowledge extraction, if not exploitation? These questions are particularly relevant for the field of African media studies, which has an epistemological affiliation with postcolonial theory and, therefore, with resistance to systems of knowledge inherited from the colonial era.This chapter identifies challenges and opportunities for the development of research and teaching in African Media Studies from the vantage point of the academic “centre” of global knowledge production. I start by reviewing the matrix of power in which Western-based researchers are entangled, with a particular focus on media and communication studies. In the second part, I draw on the implications of this positionality to identify key challenges in carrying research. The final part turns to the practice of teaching African media studies in the West in relation to those challenges. I put forward several ideas for educators to develop curricula that acknowledge and disrupt those dynamics––ultimately, engaging with what it means to contribute to epistemic resistance from a distance.
Ligue Iteka: non aux arrestations arbitraires, oui au désarmement des esprits
  • Iwacu
Iwacu. 2015b. 12 August 2015. "Ligue Iteka: non aux arrestations arbitraires, oui au désarmement des esprits". http://www.iwacu-burundi.org/ligue-iteka-non-aux-arrestations-arbitraires-ouiau-desarmement-des-esprits/ accessed 22 November 2015.
Les journalistes d'Iwacu travaillent sous les menaces
  • Iwacu
Iwacu. 2015a, June 17. Les journalistes d'Iwacu travaillent sous les menaces. http://www.iwacuburundi.org/les-journalistes-diwacu-travaillent-sous-les-menaces/ (accessed 22 November 2015).
Audit des médias par les médias
  • W Nindorera
  • S Capitant
  • T Ndarugirire
Nindorera, W., S. Capitant and T. Ndarugirire. 2013. Audit des médias par les médias. Bujumbura : Bureau de la Coopération suisse au Burundi.
Droit et pouvoir au Burundi: Un commentaire sur l'arrêt du 4 mai 2015 de la Cour Constitutionnelle dans l'affaire RCCB 303. https://www.uantwerpen.be/images
  • S Vandeginste
Vandeginste, S. 2015. Droit et pouvoir au Burundi: Un commentaire sur l'arrêt du 4 mai 2015 de la Cour Constitutionnelle dans l'affaire RCCB 303. https://www.uantwerpen.be/images/ uantwerpen/container2143/files/DPP%20Burundi/ Constitution/Cour%20Constitutionnelle/ CC%202005/RCCB303%20commentaire.pdf (accessed June 18, 2015).
Brussels: Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations
  • T Van Acker
Van Acker, T. 2015. Understanding Burundi's predicament. Africa Policy Brief no. 11 (June). Brussels: Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations.
Résultats quantitatifs. (A study completed for the Panos Great Lakes Institute, IPGL) (unpublished)
  • Decembre Etude
  • Burundi
”Ligue Iteka: non aux arrestations arbitraires, oui au désarmement des esprits“. http://www.iwacu-burundi.org/ligue-iteka-non-aux-arrestations-arbitraires-oui-au-desarmement-des-esprits
  • Iwacu
Burundi: Peace sacrificed?
International Crisis Group. 2012b. Burundi: Bye-bye Arusha? Report no. 192, 25 October. International Crisis Group. 2015. Burundi: Peace sacrificed? Crisis Group Africa Briefing no. 111, 29 May.