Journalists remember fallen comrades

Journalists from various media houses, in collaboration with the Media High Council, yesterday, visited Ntarama Genocide memorial site in Bugesera District, Eastern Province ,to honour their colleagues and other Tutsi who were massacred during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.The journalists were joined by relatives of the victims. The local media is accused of playing a major role in fuelling the killings while international media either ignored or seriously misconstrued it. Patrice Mulama, the Executive Secretary of the Media High Council, said that the main purpose of the visit was to demonstrate to journalists the role of media in fighting against Genocide. “We wanted to contribute in the reconciliation process in the country and also in spearheading the media to remember our pioneers who were killed, not because of being journalists, but because of their being Tutsi,” Mulama said. Over 50 journalists were killed during in the Genocide.Mulama added that they have established guidelines and concepts to facilitate the media to employ appropriate reporting values to dissuade segregation among Rwandans. The Mayor of Bugesera District, Louis Rwagaju, called upon journalists to be voices of the voiceless by reporting objectively and informing the world what happened in Rwanda during the Genocide. “You should be our ambassadors and inform the world how the Genocide happened. There are some people out there who are claiming that it did not happen. What you have seen is the evidence that Genocide,” he said. The Ntarama Genocide Memorial Site was once a Catholic Church before the Genocide and it contains the remains of over six thousand people who were mercilessly slaughtered as they sought refuge in the church. The memorial site (church) is strewn with clothes, skulls, and some of the machetes used to kill the victims.Journalists donated Rwf 800,000 to the memorial site. Ends