[cr-india] UNESCO supported campus radio on air in Rwanda

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

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Communication and
Information Sector's
daily news service
                        
                     
UNESCO supported campus radio on air in Rwanda

23-11-2005 (Kigali)

The first university /
community radio station
in Rwanda was officially
inaugurated on 18
November 2005 in the
Southern town of Butare,
where the National
University of Rwanda
(NUR) is located. 
Radio Salus, which is
based on a student
naming competition,
broadcasts 16 hours a
day primarily in the
Kinya-rwandan language
and has the potential to
reach some two third of
the Rwanda population.
It was created by NUR
under a UNESCO project
funded by the European
Commission. 

A variety of news,
educational and
entertainment
programming is produced
by a team of four
professional journalists
headed by Martin
Semukanya, in
cooperation with
lecturers and students
from the school of
journalism and from
other NUR?s faculties,
in addition to input
from other rural, urban,
and student
communities. 

The station is overseen
by a Council of Advisers
chaired by NUR?s Rector
and composed of three
other members from the
academic Senate
including the dean of
the School of Journalism
and Communication, two
representatives from
students? associations,
one representative from
the ministry of
information and three
members representing
both the local, urban,
and rural communities. 

"The Radio itself will
serve the Rwandan
population" said NUR?s
Rector Professor
Chrysologue Karangwa
during the station?s
launch, which was also
attended by the Minister
of Information and by
the Governor of the
Butare province, "and
also it will serve as a
training tool to offer
outstanding educational
and training opportunity
to students." 

Since 2004, ten years
after the genocide, when
the government opened
the air waves to private
radios, five other radio
stations have received
licenses and started
broadcasting in Kigali
in the three national
languages
(Kinya-rwandan, English
and French). 

In late 2003 a manager
of Radio Mille Collines
was condemned by the
International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda to
life imprisonment for
his notorious role in
the "hate radio" during
the genocide. His
colleague was sentenced
to 35 years of jail.