New Media Bill in parliament today

By: Dianah Mutimura

A review of the 2009 media law is due in Parliament this Tuesday proposing among other changes, the cabinet propose that newspapers regulate themselves.

In the new bill, 24 articles were scraped including a requirement for accreditation from the Media High Council (MHC) for anybody to become a journalist. Any registered media organizations will now the mandate to issue press cards to their journalists.

The new law yet to be enacted by the legislature and taken back to President Paul Kagame for promulgation into law has fewer articles compared to the 2009 law.

About 10 articles in the bill were also reviewed. One article was added to the new bill to emphasize that “Print media shall largely regulate itself.”

The controversial law required that only a person with prior training in journalism – with either a degree or diploma, could be a journalist. That has been changed to cover all other social science fields.

The media law is changing following a Cabinet decision to review the mandate of Media Council to instead deal with capacity building and sector development.

A major study released last month recommended that the MHC answers to parliament from the executive because that would give it more autonomy. However, this has not been adopted in the new separate bill modifying the mandate of the Council.

Recently, media professionals and journalists spent three days at a retreat where they were trying to establish a body that will supervise the media in the absence of any state organ doing exactly that.

Ideas that were floated include setting up the Rwanda Media Forum which could have membership of senior retired judges, media professionals and editors. It is this body that will oversee how the media performs.

It will also have power to authorize media organizations to take joint disciplinary measures if flaws are identified in its operations.

Parliament will also look at a new law setting up the Rwanda Broadcasting Agency to replace the state broadcaster ORINFOR comprising state radio, state TV and two newspapers.