The Back Story

During a trip to Rwanda in 2004, filmmaker Amy Brown met members of the first class of journalism students to graduate from the National University since the 1994 genocide. Many of these students witnessed firsthand the disturbing role both their own local media and the international press played during the 90-days of slaughter when half-a-million Tutsi and moderate-Hutu were killed: Rwandans listened to government and private radio stations as Hutu-extremists read names of potential victims over the airwaves. Meanwhile, the international press either ignored or seriously misrepresented what was happening.

Today, the Rwandan government is working hard to bring reconciliation and security to people of all ethnicities. Their efforts have helped make Rwanda one of the safest countries in Africa, but given their past, Rwandans are reticent to embrace a Western-style free press. On the one hand, ushering in a free press is a necessary step to sustaining democracy. However, Rwandans worry that an unregulated press in an already tense country could become inflammatory and provoke renewed violence. They’re struggling to find a balance.

What are the stakes if a free press flourishes? What does the future hold if the press adopts the message of the government? Does stability rests on the shoulders of Rwandan and international journalists?

The Film

In January 2008, filmmaker Amy Brown traveled to Rwanda to pose these questions to journalism students and their professors -- professional journalists from Canada. With her cameraman, Brown spent six-weeks at the National University in Butare with the students as they struggle to cover under-reported stories and wrestle with the responsibility of being a journalist in a country where people distrust the media.

Rwanda Reporting will take viewers into classroom discussions, to the studio at Radio Salus for a student-produced show, on a field trip where the students cover President Bush’s visit to Rwanda, to birthday celebrations and dance parties.  Along the way a new picture of Rwanda emerges – a picture that is not solely a story of genocide and suffering.  The film will shed light on the complicated relationship between the past and present, using the students’ reported stories and blog entries to serve as the voice of the film. 

Rwanda Reporting will tackle the complexity of creating an independent press with sensitivity, compassion and balance. What's more, it will capture the powerful role that western journalism institutions can play to challenge and support the germination of a free press in the developing world, holding up this exchange of ideas and experiences as a model to inspire.