Nairobi – Media rights group Reporters Without Borders condemned Burundi’s President Evariste Ndayishimiye on Thursday for virulent public tirades against a journalist working for French media.
Ndayishimiye has taken Burundian journalist Esdras Ndikumana to task twice in less than two weeks, accusing him of “tarnishing” the country’s image with his reports on the Covid crisis.
Reporters without Borders, known by its French acronym RSF, said Burundi would be better served fighting the coronavirus pandemic rather than journalists.
“We condemn these grave and dangerous statements, a sad reminder of press freedom’s fragility in Burundi,” Arnaud Froger, head of RSF’s Africa office, said in a statement.
ALSO READ |Burundi suspends rare-earth mining in row over riches
“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 decision,” he said.
Ndikumana works for French international radio broadcaster RFI, which said it protested against the “unfounded and absurd” accusations against him.
The Burundi Union of Journalists also voiced its “consternation” over the president’s “repeated attacks” against journalists.
Ndikumana, who also works for international news agency AFP, was tortured by security forces in August 2015 and now lives in exile.
Ndayishimiye on Tuesday launched a verbal attack on Ndikumana in a public address at a stadium, accusing him of being bent on “destroying” Burundi, after a similar diatribe earlier in August.
ALSO READ | EU to return J&J vaccines made in South Africa
“Someone who spends his days and nights saying that hospitals are full of cases of coronavirus, that people are dying en masse, is he not an agent at the service of poverty,” the Burundian leader said to applause.
Burundi along with Eritrea and North Korea are the only countries yet to start Covid-19 vaccination campaigns.
According to its latest statistics, the country – one of the poorest in the world – has reported 5 723 cases of the coronavirus with eight deaths.
“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,” RSF’s Froger said.
In 2016, Ndikumana was accused by Bujumbura of “promoting crime and violence” in his coverage and he has since received threats on social media.
RSF ranks Burundi 147th out of 180 countries in its press freedom index.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Picture: Getty Images
Source: AFP
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
