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What Is the Relationship between Hate Radio and Violence? Rethinking Rwanda's "Radio Machete"
Scott Straus
University of Wisconsin, Madison, sstraus{at}wisc.edu
The importance of hate radio pervades commentary on the Rwandan genocide, and Rwanda has become a paradigmatic case of media sparking extreme violence. However, there exists little social scientific analysis of radio's impact on the onset of genocide and the mobilization of genocide participants. Through an analysis of exposure, timing, and content as well as interviews with perpetrators, the article refutes the conventional wisdom that broadcasts from the notorious radio station RTLM were a primary determinant of genocide. Instead, the article finds evidence of conditional media e fects, which take on significance only when situated in a broader context of violence.
Key Words: genocide • ethnic violence • media effects • hate radio • Rwanda
References
- Alison Des Forges, Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999).
- Jean Pierre Chrétien, Jean-François Dupaquier, Marcel Kambanda, and Joseph Ngarambe, Rwanda: Les Médias du Génocide (Paris: Karthala, 1995); Christine Kellow and H. Leslie Steeves, " The Role of Radio in the Rwandan Genocide," Journal of Communication 48, no. 3 (1998): 107—28; Linda Melvern, Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwandan Genocide (London: Verso, 2004); Kingsley Moghalu, Rwanda's Genocide: The Politics of International Justice (New York: Palgrave, 2005), 90; William Schabas, " Hate Speech in Rwanda: The Road to Genocide," McGill Law Journal, 46 (2000): 141—71; and Allan Thompson, ed., The Media and the Rwanda Genocide (London: Pluto Press, 2007).
- See, for example, the films Hotel Rwanda, Sometimes in April, and Sleeping Dogs as well as the PBS documentaries The Triumph of Evil and Ghosts of Rwanda and the November 30, 2006, 60 Minutes show "Rwandan Genocide Survivor Recalls Horror."
- Jamie Frederic Metzl, "Rwandan Genocide and the International Law of Radio Jamming," The American Journal of International Law 91, no. 4 (1997): 628—51; and Department of Defense memos online at the National Security Archive, http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB53/rw050594.pdf (accessed on September 4, 2007).[CrossRef]
- Jack Snyder and Karen Ballentine, "Nationalism and the Marketplace of Ideas," International Security 21, no. 2 (1996): 5—40; and Jack Snyder, From Voting to Violence: Democratization and Nationalist Conflict (New York: Norton, 2000 ). See also Linda Kirschke, "Multiparty Transitions, Elite Manipulation, and the Media: Reassessing the Rwandan Genocide," Viertljahresschrift für Sicherheit und Frieden 18, no. 3 (2000): 238—44.
- Frank Chalk, "Hate Radio in Rwanda," in Howard Adelman and Astri Suhrke, eds., The Path of a Genocide; The Rwanda Crisis from Uganda to Zaire ( New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1999), 93—107.
- Article 19, Broadcasting Genocide: Censorship, Propaganda, and State-Sponsored Violence in Rwanda 1990—1994 ( London: Article 19, 1996); Tharcisse Gatwa, "Ethnic Conflict and the Media: The Case of Rwanda," Media Development 42, no. 3 ( 1995): 18—20; and Internews, "Media in Conflict: Case Study-Rwanda," http://www.internews.org/pubs/mediaconflict/mic_rwanda.shtm (accessed on September 6, 2007); Dina Temple-Raston, " Journalism and Genocide," Columbia Journalism Review 41, no. 3 ( 2002): 18—19; and Dina Temple-Raston, Justice on the Grass: Three Rwandan Journalists, Their Trial for War Crimes, and a Nation's Quest for Redemption (New York: Free Press, 2005).
- Metzl, "Rwandan Genocide "; and Schabas, " Hate Speech in Rwanda."
- International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, " The Prosecutor v. Ferdinand Nahimana, Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, and Hassan Ngeze," ICTR Case No. 99-52-T, Judgment and Decision, December 3, 2003.
- Mark Levene, Genocide in the Age of Nation State, Vol. 1 (London: I. B. Tauris, 2005), 116; Metzl, "Rwandan Genocide," 629; and Thompson, The Media and the Rwanda Genocide.
- Thompson, The Media and the Rwanda Genocide, 6.
- Ictr, "The Prosecutor v. Ferdinand Nahimana," 6.
- Graham Mytton, "From Saucepan to Dish," in Richard Fardon and Graham Furniss, eds., African Broadcast Cultures: Radio in Transition (Oxford, UK: James Currey, 2000), 21—41.
- These included Radio France International, the Voice of America, the British Broadcasting Corporation, and Deutsche Welle.
- Article 19, Broadcasting Genocide; Chrétien et al., Les Médias; ICTR, "The Prosecutor v. Ferdinand Nahimana"; and Kirschke, "Multiparty Transitions."
- Simone Monasebian, " The Pre-Genocide Case against Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines," in Thompson, The Media and the Rwanda Genocide, 308.
- Roméo Dallaire with Brent Beardsley, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (Toronto: Random House, 2003 ), 272.
- Linda Melvern, A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Rwanda's Genocide (London: Zed Books, 2000), 71.
- Linda Melvern, " Radio Murder," Times Literary Supplement, September 9, 2005, 25.
- Samantha Power, " Bystanders to Genocide: Why the United States Let the Rwandan Genocide Happen," The Atlantic Monthly 288, no. 2 (2001): 89.
- Neil Mitchell, Agents of Atrocity: Leaders, Followers, and the Violation of Human Rights in Civil War (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004), 42.
- Francois Misser and Yves Jaumain, "Death by Radio," Index on Censorship 4, no. 5 (1994): 72—74.
- House Editorial, " Fanning Rwanda's Genocide," New York Times, December 5, 2003.
- Melvern, "Radio Murder," 25.
- Melvern, Conspiracy, 205.
- Mary Kimani, " RTLM: The Medium that Became a Tool for Mass Murder," in Thompson, The Media and the Rwanda Genocide, 110—24.
- Alison Des Forges, "Call to Genocide: Radio in Rwanda, 1994," in Thompson, The Media and the Rwanda Genocide, 41—54.
- The term is found throughout the ICTR Media Trial decision; see also International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, " Three Media Leaders Convicted of Genocide," December 3, 2003, http://69.94.11.53/ENGLISH/PRESSREL/2003/372.htm (accessed on September 4, 2007).
- Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro, "Rwandan Private Print Media on the Eve of the Genocide," in Thompson, The Media and the Rwanda Genocide, 86; and Charles Mironko, "The Effect of RTLM's Rhetoric of Ethnic Hatred in Rural Rwanda," in Thompson, The Media and the Rwanda Genocide, 134.
- Darryl Li, "Echoes of Violence: Considerations on Radio and Genocide in Rwanda," Journal of Genocide Research 6, no. 1 ( 2004): 9—28.[CrossRef]
- Darryl Li, "Echoes of Violence," Dissent 49, no. 1 (2002): 82.
- Richard Carver, "Broadcasting and Political Transition: Rwanda and Beyond," in Fardon and Furniss, African Broadcast Cultures, 188—97.
- Alan Kuperman, The Limits of Humanitarian Intervention: Genocide in Rwanda ( Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2001), 91.
- Chrétien et al., Les Médias, 7 (translation by author).
- Melvern, "Radio Murder," 25.
- Kellow and Steeves, "The Role of Radio," 124.
- For some additional examples, see Jean- Pierre Chrétien, "RTLM Propaganda: The Democratic Alibi," in Thompson, The Media and the Rwanda Genocide, 55—61; Frank Chalk, "Intervening to Prevent Genocidal Violence: The Role of the Media," in Thompson, The Media and the Rwanda Genocide, 375; and Richard Orth, "Rwanda's Hutu Extremist Insurgency: An Eyewitness Perspective," in Susan Cook, ed., Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda: New Perspectives (New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 2006), 221.
- Chrétien et al., Les Médias, 191 (translation by author).
- Quoted in Kellow and Steeves, " The Role of Radio," 124.
- Chrétien et al., Les Médias, 7 (translation by author).
- Ictr, "The Prosecutor vs. Ferdinand Nahimana," 165.
- Ibid, 318 (the specific reference here is to the magazine Kangura).
- Ibid, 165.
- On the "hypodermic needle," see John Zaller, The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 311. On stimulus and response, see Elizabeth Perse, Media E fects and Society (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2001); and Jennings Bryant and Susan Thompson, Fundamentals of Media E fects (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2002).
- John Zaller, "The Myth of a Massive Media Impact Revived: New Support for a Discredited Idea," in Diana Mutz, Paul Sniderman, and Richard Brody, eds., Political Persuasion and Attitude Change (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996), 17—78.
- This is true even in a non-U.S. setting. See, for examples, Chappell Lawson and James A. McCann, "Television News, Mexico's 2000 Elections and Media Effects in Emerging Democracies," British Journal of Political Science 35 ( 2005): 1—30; and Stephen White, Sarah Oates, and Ian McAllister, "Media Effects and Russian Elections, 1999—2000," British Journal of Political Science 35 (2005): 191—208.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
- Zaller, The Nature and Origins; and Zaller, " The Myth of a Massive Media Impact."
- On the latter point, see also Carver, " Broadcasting and Political Transition."
- A similar point is made in Kirschke, "Multiparty Transitions," 239.
- Two of the most important studies are good examples: the ICTR Media Trial judgment and Chrétien et al., Les Médias.
- Kimani, "RTLM: The Medium," 110—24.
- Lee Ann Fujii, Killing Neighbors: Social Dimensions of Genocide in Rwanda, PhD diss., George Washington University, 2006; and Scott Straus, The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006).
- The broadcast is attributed to RTLM and was the basis for a title of a popular book on Africa: Bill Berkeley, The Graves Are Not Yet Full: Race, Tribe, and Power in the Heart of Africa (New York: Basic Books, 2001).
- There is no record of the broadcast (Article 19, Broadcasting Genocide, 112), and the ICTR does not cite it.
- Mironko, " The Effect of RTLM's Rhetoric."
- Ictr, "The Prosecutor vs. Ferdinand Nahimana," 342.
- Rwanda in 1994 had sixty-seven radio receivers for every one thousand inhabitants, making Rwanda the country with the eleventh fewest per capita radio receivers in Africa, as reported in United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Statistical Yearbook ( Rome: UNESCO, 1996).
- An exception is Mironko, "The Effect of RTLM's Rhetoric," 126.
- Kellow and Steeves, "The Role of Radio," 118; and Kirschke, " Multiparty Transitions," 241.
- République du Rwanda, Recensement général de la population et de l'habitat au 15 août 1991: Analyse des résultats définitifs, Kigali, Rwanda, April 1994.
- See the July 4, 2001, testimony in the Media Trial at http://www.hirondelle.org/hirondelle.nsf/0/54b248bce49a1b54c1256721007ae35c? OpenDocument (accessed on September 4, 2007).
- For greater details on onset dates in the data set and their sources, see Straus, The Order of Genocide, Appendix Table 2.1, 249—55.
- The noted ranges are (from lowest to highest averages, measured in 500 m increments): 500—2,000 m (Kibungo); 1,000—2,500m (Butare, Gikongoro, Gitarama, Cyangugu, and Byumba); 1,000—3,000 (Kibuye); 1,000—4,500 (Gisenyi and Ruhengeri). The analysis is based on elevations reported in International Travel Maps, "Rwanda-Burundi," map no. 669, 1998.
- Dictionnaire nominatif des victimes du génocide en Préfecture de Kibuye (Kigali, Rwanda: IBUKA, 1999).
- Ictr, "The Prosecutor vs. Ferdinand Nahimana," 151, 162.
- Ibid, 133.
- Ibid, 152.
- Ibid, 136—7.
- Kimani, "RTLM: The Medium," 122.
- Chrétien et al., Les Médias, 393.
- Ibid.
- Kellow and Steeves, "The Role of Radio."
- Article 19, Broadcasting Genocide, 114—19.
- These would appear to be a fraction of the total entered into evidence, but they are the only translated ones made available. See Ictr, "The Prosecutor vs. Ferdinand Nahimana," 117—18.
- See also Kimani, who has a larger sample of transcripts with some apparently similar results, even if timing and content are not correlated in the study. Kimani, "RTLM: A Tool," 118—19.
- Charles Mironko, " Means and Motive in the Rwandan Genocide," in Cook, Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda, 163—89; and Fujii, Killing Neighbors.
- Lee Ann Fujii's microlevel research in Rwanda produced similar results. While not probing specifically for radio effects, in her interviews with perpetrators, survivors, and witnesses in rural areas, radio was not mentioned as a primary driver of the violence (personal communication with author).
- For further details on the survey, see Straus, The Order of Genocide, chap. 4 and 5.
- Li, " Echoes of Violence"; and Mironko, "The Effect of RTLM's Rhetoric."
- The regression results are available on-line at http://www.polisci.wisc.edu/users/ straus/research.html (accessed on September 4, 2007).
- A longer excerpt from the same interview as well as a number of other interview transcripts that show similar dynamics can be found in Robert Lyons and Scott Straus, Intimate Enemy: Images and Voices of the Rwandan Genocide (New York: Zone/MIT Press, 2006), 39—96.
- This is consistent with Mironko's findings in "The Effect of RTLM's Rhetoric."
- For a fuller elaboration of the argument, see Straus, The Order of Genocide.
Politics & Society, Vol. 35, No. 4,
609-637 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0032329207308181
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