Opposition leaders and commentators in Rwanda are being persecuted by the authorities for “their speech and opinions,” intensifying a culture of intolerance toward dissent, a human rights group has said. In a damning report published on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said it had monitored court documents, verdicts, and judges’ arguments against several Rwandans who have ended up behind bars due to the country’s “abusive legal framework.”
Researchers also pointed to violations of the right to freedom of expression after analyzing content posted on YouTube by several reporters now on trial and interviewing 11 opposition members. “People are not free to express themselves on anything that might be seen as challenging the government or what it says,” Lewis Mudge, HRW’s Central Africa director, told Al Jazeera. In the past decade, YouTube had emerged as the last virtual frontier for voicing dissent on national issues after print media and then radio stations became strictly monitored by Rwandan authorities. Now, its popular users are also being targeted, HRW said.
Read more here: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/16/rwanda-silencing-youtubers
