Mixed reactions on MHC report

State Media has officially dismissed a report that was launched Wednesday by the Media High Council (MHC) on how government-owned media outlets allocated and distributed airtime to political parties and the lone independent candidate during the just concluded parliamentary campaigns. The report presented by the Executive Committee of the MHC named ‘Media Monitoring Report on the Allocation of Airtime and Space in the Public Media to Political Parties and Independent Media’ raised dust when representatives of the Rwanda Office of Information (ORINFOR) perused through and firmly branded the report as misleading and incomplete. It (report) details the amount of airtime in minutes used by all political parties and independent candidate. In the report, ORINFOR was grilled for not being professional in broadcasting talk shows and printing articles related to the campaigns. The 16-page report, however, reads in part that the public media tried to abide by the MHC regulations ‘although not to a satisfactory standard’. The report indicated that the inconsistencies were mostly brought about by the lack of experience in time management. Reacting to the report, the Director of Radio Rwanda, Willy Rukundo, dismissed it saying that it needs to be reviewed. “This report does not show statistics in detail as they are supposed to be. It should be revised, otherwise it will mislead the public,” he said. Rukundo added that the report contains contradicting terminologies that were supposed to be looked at and corrected before its launch. Some of the contradicting terminologies included allocation and distribution of airtime, an issue that was raised and pushed forward by researcher and sociologist, Servilien Sebasoni who also doubles as Rwanda Patriotic Front’s Spokesperson. The Editor-in-Chief of Imvaho Nshya Frank Ndamage, termed the report as ‘imbalanced and full of contradictions.’ “The person who compiled this report was supposed to have contacted ORINFOR to dig deep and find out the cause of the inconsistencies mentioned in this report; this makes it totally imbalanced’ he complained. The report mentions in part that not all camdites were allocated equal airtime and that ORINFOR journalists exhibited lack of professionalism by not firing political party representatives with questions of public interest. In reaction to this, Ndamage said that he pleaded with the independent candidate to avail him an interview but in vain. “I reached the extent of pleading with him requesting him to write whatever he was going to do if he joined Parliament but he could not even fill a page,” he complained He added that he personally called representatives of political parties and the independent candidate several times requesting them to publish something and cover the space meant for them but that they were not responsive. The report also stated in part that contrary to article 12 of the MHC regulation number 008 which required ORINFOR to set up a detailed timetable showing the period allocated to each political party or candidate and avail it to the MHC was not fulfilled. The Executive Secretary of the MHC, Patrice Mulama defended the findings the report’s stand saying that it’s the representatives of ORINFOR that did not get the facts in the report right. MHC members referred to the report as a draft yet there is no phrase or word in the report that mentions that it is a draft. Radio Rwanda’s Rukundo said that the reason why it was later termed as a draft was because MHC had realized that the report was full of mistakes and that it is was why they had tactfully withdrawn it. However, Mulama differed with Rukundo and said that not indicating ‘draft’ on the cover page was an error adding that a final report was coming up. The acting chairman of the MHC, Dr. Venuste Karambizi said that the mistakes in the report had been noted and would be corrected and published in the grand report that is due soon. Ends

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Mixed reactions on MHC report