The struggle over truth: Rwanda and the BBC

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Periodical article

Title:	The struggle over truth: Rwanda and the BBC
Author:	Reyntjens, Filip
Year:	2015
Periodical:	African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society (ISSN 1468-2621)
Volume:	114
Issue:	457
Pages:	637-648
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Rwanda Great Britain
Subjects:	mass communication mass media Front Patriotique Rwandais images
External link:	http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/content/114/457/637.short
Abstract:	In Rwanda, information and communication management is an important political weapon used by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) to protect its hold on power. The RPF has developed a coherent and comprehensive narrative on the past, present, and future of the country and its citizens, and tightly policing this 'truth' is an essential ingredient of its political strategy. On 1 October 2014, the BBC aired a television documentary entitled 'Rwanda's Untold Story'. It offered a view very different from the RPF's narrative, one that questioned its democratic credentials and human rights record. This briefing analyses what was at stake in the ensuing struggle between the Rwandan government and the BBC, as well as the strategies deployed. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]