Burundi president condemned for criticism of journalist

Burundi's President,
Evariste Ndayishimiye

BUJUMBURA, Burundi

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.