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President Paul Kagame today opened the Fifth East African Community (EAC) Media Summit in Kigali, with a call to journalists from around the region to help enhance the Community’s integration process.

“The media have both the power and responsibility to get the region to embrace regional integration with passion, dedication and commitment for the benefit of the present and future generations of East Africans,” the President told delegates.

“And because no one else will do it for us, they have the duty to help tell the true story of our region, including our collective desire for peace, security, stability and development,” he said, urging the East African media not to “become complicit in perpetuating biased views imposed from the outside”.

Kagame faulted the western media for promoting a negative narrative about East Africa and the African continent in general. “This is made worse when our own media either remain silent or just relay the same stories told from a biased standpoint”.

Participants at the two-day summit will explore ways how the media can best promote the EAC integration agenda, particularly the Common Market. EAC is composed of five countries, namely Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.