Media

UNHRC pleads for release of four Iwacu reporters

02-23-2020 According to a communiqué issued by the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner on February 20, the UN experts strongly criticized the two and a half year jail sentence handed down against four Burundian journalists. They said sentencing the four journalists to jail for simply carrying out (...)

Some Burundian radio journalists forced to work as volunteers

02-14-2020 “I have just worked for more than 5 years without being paid. I preferred to work as a volunteer to avoid staying idle,” says a young journalist working for a community radio station operating in Gitega province in central Burundi on the occasion of the celebration of the World (...)

Iwacu journalists sentenced to two years and six months in prison

02-02-2020 On Thursday 30 January, the long-awaited verdict for Agnès, Christine, Egide, Térence and their driver Adolphe, was rendered. These four media professionals were sentenced to two years and 6 months in prison. Following a public hearing held in Bubanza High Court, only Adolphe, the driver who had been provisionally (...)

Iwacu reporters sentenced to thirty months’ imprisonment

01-30-2020 Bubanza High Court has just sentenced Iwacu reporters to two years and six months’ imprisonment and each of them fined BIF one million. Adolphe Masabarakiza, their driver has been acquitted. Their accusations would have been changed. They would have been accused of an “impossible attempt of complicity in undermining (...)

Radio Isanganiro correspondent in Karuzi province released

01-20-2020 Blaise Pascal Kararumiye, the Radio Isanganiro’s correspondent in Karuzi has been released in the afternoon of this 20 January 2020. He was summoned to appear at the office of the Governor of Karuzi province where he was heard by the governor, her advisers, all communal administrators of Karuzi province (...)

Another Burundian journalist detained

01-17-2020 Blaise-Pascal Kararumiye, correspondent of Radio Isanganiro in Karusi province has just spent his first night in the police dungeon of Karusi province. He was taken to the dungeon after being heard by the prosecutor on his story on the management of the funds granted to “Sangwe” cooperatives situated in (...)

European parliament demands release of four detained Burundian journalists

01-17-2020 European parliamentarians adopted on 16 January a resolution condemning the continued deterioration of human rights situation in the lead-up to the upcoming elections. According to them, the victims of those abuses are mainly political opponents and people who are considered to be opponents. The European Parliament also called on (...)

Victims of WhatsApp joke

01-06-2020 The public prosecutor has demanded that the 4 journalists of Iwacu newspaper and their driver be sentenced to fifteen years in prison over a WhatsApp joke. There are also other penalties. The office of the Director of public prosecutions only based upon a message from Agnès Ndirubusa to incriminate (...)

Iwacu reporters to remain behind bars

11-25-2019 The Ntahangwa Court of Appeal announced on Wednesday (November 20) its decision to keep in prison Agnès, Christine, Egide and Terence, all Iwacu reporters. Adolphe, their driver, was temporarily released. Reacting to this decision, one of the Iwacu reporters’ lawyers, Clément Retirakiza, expressed his disappointment: “Although one of the (...)

Burundian journalists plead for release of their colleagues from Iwacu

11-22-2019 “They have just spent a month in jail while they didn’t commit any crime,” says a journalist working for a local radio station. For him, the four Iwacu news reporters were simply doing their daily job. “This is not the first time journalists are arrested. But the authorities shout (...)