Burundi's President, Evariste Ndayishimiye |
Burundi's
President, Evariste Ndayishimiye, has been condemned for his verbal attack
against a journalist who covered the Covid-19 situation in the country.
The president has
publicly attacked Esdras
Ndikumana, a reporter for French public radio broadcaster Radio France
Internationale (RFI), twice in the past two weeks, most recently at a
meeting with young entrepreneurs in the east of the country on 31 August, when
he accused Ndikumana of inflating the number of cases and using RFI to “promote poverty in the country.”Esdras Ndikumana
In a speech broadcast on
19 August by national radio and TV broadcaster RTNB and by Rema, a station that supports the ruling party, the president
claimed that Ndikumana, who has lived in self-imposed exile for the past six
years, “dreams of seeing Burundi sink into the abyss, seeing Burundians die and
seeing Covid-19 assail us.”
Reporters
Without Borders (RSF) said these "serious and dangerous remarks" were
"a sad reminder of the fragility of press freedom in Burundi".
RFI
described the president's accusations as "unfounded and absurd".
RSF's
Africa head Arnaud Froger urged the president "not to make the wrong
enemy" adding that he should be "fighting the epidemic rather than
journalists".
“We condemn these
grave and dangerous statements, which are a sad reminder of press freedom’s
fragility in Burundi,” said Arnaud
“Trying to make
journalists act as government mouthpieces is not the best way to help their
development. Instead, they should be allowed to do their job of informing the
public and encouraging the authorities to take the best possible decisions. The
work journalists do is absolutely essential during this pandemic. We urge the
president to target the right enemy, to combat the pandemic instead of
attacking journalists.”
There
have been concerns about media freedom in the past in Burundi.
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