The International Press Institute (IPI) today condemned the two-and-a-half-year prison sentence handed down by Rwanda’s Supreme Court to an exiled journalist on 3 June, after he was found guilty of allegedly insulting President Paul Kagame and inciting civil disobedience, AFP reported.

Jean Bosco Gasasira, editor of the newspaper Umuvugizi, was acquitted in September, but the prosecutor reportedly appealed the decision and called for a 10-year sentence.

“The supreme court found him guilty of inciting civil disobedience, and insulting the head of state and sentenced him to two years and six months in prison,” the news agency quoted a source at the court as saying.

Gasasira will face arrest if he returns to Rwanda. The decision is final and cannot be appealed since it was reached by Rwanda’s highest court.

In April 2010, the Media High Council issued orders for the temporary shutdown of Gasasira’s independent publication Umuvugizi, for allegedly insulting the head of state and provoking insubordination. The newspaper was suspended for six months.

On 24 June 2010, Jean Leonard Ruganbage, an editor for Umuvugizi newspaper, was shot dead in front of his home on the outskirts of the capital Kigali. Gasasira accused the government of murdering his colleague.

In the run-up to the presidential elections in August the same year, Gasasira fled the country to Uganda in and launched an online version of his publication (www.umuvugizi.com) in order to cover the events from exile. Soon after, the website was blocked and could not be accessed through two of Rwanda’s biggest Internet service providers, the Rwanda News Agency reported in early June 2010.

The move to shut down media outlets also across the country was one element of a series of worrying moves against freedom of expression ahead of the elections.

This February, a Rwandan court handed down heavy prison sentences to two journalists. The editor of the Umurabyo monthly, Agnes Uwimana Nkusi, was sentenced to 17 years in prison on charges of defaming officials, and causing division by trying to deny the 1994 Rwandan genocide. A reporter working for the same publication, Saidath Mukakibibi, was convicted of inciting civil disobedience, and sentenced to seven years in prison.

IPI expressed concern that in the absence of clear evidence of the act of criminal incitement to violence, such judgments could fuel self-censorship and threaten freedom of the media.

IPI Press Freedom Manager Anthony Mills said: “We are concerned at what appears to be a continuing deterioration of the press freedom environment in Rwanda. We urge Rwanda to decriminalize defamation so that journalists don’t face prison time for their work.”