The Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Community, Louise Mushikiwabo has commended the development of media in Rwanda and pledged government support to further strengthen the progress.
Mushikiwabo was speaking this Tuesday while officiating at the Rwanda Media Dialogue and the celebration of Africa Day of Information in Kigali.
“I am pleased to participate in this celebration where media has well-developed in terms of quantity and quality. As former minister of Information, I know how far we have come,” she said.
She said that Information Day is an opportunity to bring together practitioners and discuss the sector’s development and help them serve better and satisfy people’s expectations.
She called on media participation in communicating to the population about their development activities through the current reforms of the African Union.
“Africa’s media should be among partners in implementing programmes that lead to welfare of population. People should consume essential information as it is their right.
This occasion is also a good opportunity to put pressure on leaders to provide information on services to the population,” she said.
She assured government’s contribution in supporting development of media, be in Rwanda and Africa in general.
The Chief Executive Officer of Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), Prof. Anastase Shyaka said that the number of media houses in the country and the quality of news they provide attest to the development.
However, Shyaka said that though there is overall development, some media houses have financial constraints.
“Media practitioners should think of new working mechanisms. For media houses to be able to develop, you need to put resources together. Cooperation will help attracting foreign media houses for partnership with Rwandan media houses,” Shyaka advised.
In Rwanda there are 35 radios among which 27 are private, over 10 TV stations, one run by the government, 45 print media and over 100 online media houses. src :igihe
The Express News
