For immediate release
Book launch events begin for The Media and the Rwanda Genocide
OTTAWA – Allan Thompson, a journalism professor at Carleton University, is formally launching his new book – The Media and the Rwanda Genocide – with a series of book launch events and talks, beginning Jan. 16 in Britain.
The 470-page volume is an edited collection of papers, published this month by Pluto Press of London, Fountain Publishers of Kampala and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (www.idrc.ca/rwandagenocide).
The initial book tour will include stops in Britain, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya. The Canadian launch events will take place on Feb. 6 and Feb. 7 in Ottawa. And launch events will also be held in Washington on Feb. 1.
The book argues that international news media contributed to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, alongside hate media outlets in the country.
"Through their absence and a failure to adequately observe and record events, journalists contributed to the behaviour of the perpetrators of the genocide – who were encouraged by the world's apathy and acted with impunity," Thompson contends in his introduction to the book.
"More comprehensive and accurate reporting about the Rwanda genocide could have changed the behaviour of the perpetrators, mitigating the slaughter," Thompson writes.
News media played a crucial role in the Rwanda genocide. Local hate media fuelled the killings while the international media either ignored or seriously misconstrued what was happening.
The Media and the Rwanda Genocide is the first book to fully explore both sides of that media equation. The book examines how local radio and print media were used as a tool of hate by encouraging neighbours to turn against each other.
It also presents a critique of international media coverage of the cataclysmic events in Rwanda. Bringing together local reporters and commentators from Rwanda, high-profile Western journalists and leading media theorists, this is the only book to identify and probe the extent of the media’s culpability. It also examines deliberations by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on the role of the media in the genocide and examines the way forward.
Thompson, a former journalist with the Toronto Star newspaper, has been a journalism professor at Carleton University since 2003 and is also director of the Rwanda Initiative (www.RwandaInitiative.ca), a media capacity-building project that sends visiting lecturers and media interns to Rwanda.
The book grew out of a major international symposium held in 2004 at Carleton University, home to Canada’s most famous journalism school.
Prof. Thompson’s presentations in Britain and Africa have been undertaken with the support of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada and the International Development Research Centre. He will be posting regular blog entries about the tour on the RwandaInitiative.ca website.
For further information about the book or to place an order, consult the following link: www.idrc.ca/rwandagenocide
For more information contact Allan Thompson at:
allan_thompson@carleton.ca |
