KIGALI - All the media outlets and journalists in Rwanda are covering elections under careful scrutiny of the High Council of the Press (HCP) to ensure fairness, officials at the council revealed on Friday.

Since parliamentary campaigns kicked off, the council is recording all election-related stories, written supplements, broadcast shows, and adverts published by newspapers, radio and television stations based or allowed to operate in Rwanda.

According to its officials, the HCP will talk to journalists who will be biased or subjective in their reporting; it will also monitor the way airtime is allocated to candidates by the public media, and the way private media handles candidates’ adverts during the campaigns.

"It is forbidden for a journalist to take sides, even when it is in ordinary times. During the campaigns, journalists are expected to handle the campaigns in a professional way,” said Eugène Ruhinguka, HCP’s Director of Regulation, Research, and Media development.

He said that journalists who will be identified as biased in their reporting will be sanctioned by withdrawing their press cards and forwarded to the appropriate institutions for legal measures to be taken against them. 

The council designed two sets of regulations; one about guidelines for election coverage, and another directing the public media outlets to provide equitable access to candidates during their campaigns to help them spread their political agenda.

"Because public media use people’s funds, they have to allow equal and free time to all candidates,” Ruhinguka said.

As for private media outlets, he said that regulations allow them to sell airtime to candidates depending on how much money these have, but they need to set up equal prices and promote pluralism where possible.

"No one can be denied to spread their ideas when they meet the prices fixed, and no one should take all the air time available unless there are no other candidates buying it,” he says.

The HCP deployed about six people to help in the monitoring work according to its Director of Administration and Finance (DAF), Egide Ingabire.

Four of them were temporarily hired and sent to upcountry areas where they will mainly monitor election coverage by government-owned community radio stations and other radio stations that can’t be captured from the capital city Kigali.

The remaining two monitors are part of the council’s permanent staff that will monitor the media in Kigali.

"It is not easy work but it is possible,” Ingabire said while describing the media monitoring endeavours.

The Council’s monitoring team will examine media messages on more than ten radio stations in the country, more than 60 news papers, and the national television.

Ruhinguka said that a report of the HCP about parliamentary elections media coverage in Rwanda will be compiled in October 2008.

He said that the report will help both media professionals to rate their work and some partners like the government to evaluate the level of democracy, good governance, and freedom of expression in the country.

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