In 2006, journalist Arthur Asiimwe was held at gunpoint for eight hours when, reporting on a new rebel group, he was kidnapped by Congolese Mia Mia and Rwandan Hutu rebels. That same year, 168 journalists were killed around the world while on duty, according to the International News Safety Institute. Fortunately for Asiimwe, the United Nations peacekeepers he was travelling with pleaded with the rebels to set him free.
As a field reporter for Reuters for six years, Asiimwe covered his native Rwanda, eastern Congo and Burundi and he ran the most-listened-to radio show in Rwanda, Cross Fire, featuring government officials debating the week’s headlines. While his beat was increasingly dangerous, his passion for journalism remained strong.
Asiimwe became involved in the Rwanda Initiative, a partnership between Carleton and the National University of Rwanda to build Rwanda’s media capacity, and came to Ottawa in 2008 to earn a master’s of journalism degree. He intends to return to Rwanda after graduation to teach and practice journalism.
“The biggest challenge for Rwandan media is not necessarily press freedom, it is dramatically low levels of professionalism,” he says. Asiimwe says only a quarter of journalists have university degrees and more training is needed.
“Levels of debate are quite low because it’s not a very big, vibrant media. Given five or so years, we’ll have very good results in terms of building a stronger media for Rwanda.”
A recipient of the Richard Van Loon Scholarship for students from African countries, Asiimwe has benefited from the support of the Carleton community, which established the scholarship to honour Carleton’s former president. Van Loon asked that the award be directed to an African student who has demonstrated high academic performance but requires financial aid.
With files from Ottawa Citizen.