Sixteen years after the start of the Rwanda genocide, the International Press Institute (IPI) spoke with Rwandan journalist Faith Mbabazi, chief editor of Radio Rwanda, the country’s largest radio station, based in Kigali. Although she was only 16 when the killings began, Mbabazi – who also heads the Association of Rwanda Women In the Media and is a board member of Rwanda’s Media High Council – remembers vividly the voices of well-known journalists, on air, inciting what would later become a travesty that resulted in an estimated one million deaths. In a nearly hour-long conversation, Mbabazi, host of the show “My Interview,” spoke of the state of the media in Rwanda today, the responsibility of journalists, and her affection for Christiane Amanpour. Following is an excerpt of that conversation.

IPI: What is going through your mind today as you go about your work as a journalist in Rwanda?

Mbabazi: “It is really terrible. Today is the first day of the commemoration and everybody is listening in to my station. (Leading up to today we were thinking): what are we going to broadcast that is not going to cause more trauma?

“The theme today is, ‘How can we help people change their lives?’

IPI: What are the main obstacles to press freedom in Rwanda?

Mbabazi: “The question is not of obstacles to press freedom, but how press freedom is being used in Rwanda and how members of the press are using press freedom. It is hard everywhere in the world for the press to do investigative reporting, and the same is true here.”

Mbabazi says she has never been prevented from doing investigative stories. She has not been followed or asked to turn herself in to the police to answer questions, she said.

“I have criticized government leaders for what they have failed to do and I have interviewed government officials in the studio. People will call and ask, ‘Why are you asking those tough questions to the president?’ And I am like, ‘Hey, it is my job. It is all about responsible journalism.

“I think we are learning -16 years down the line is not a long time, but we are learning.”

IPI: If you could change three things that prohibit radio AND newspaper journalists from doing their jobs effectively in Rwanda, what would they be?

Mbabazi: “Self censorship. That’s number one. Capacity building. It is really terrible (a recent study showed that not even 25 percent of working journalists in Rwanda have gone through two years professional training in journalism school).

“Also, how can we make the people we serve trust us? We don’t give the people what they need. We give them what they want.”

IPI: What are the lessons you think local journalists learned from the genocide in Rwanda?

Mbabazi: “There are about 16 radio stations broadcasting in all languages (in Rwanda). Everything you hear is nearly the same: ‘What are we doing to become more responsible journalists?’ When you come to my newsroom it is something that is right at the top. What will you report? Who you will work for? How will you be responsible?

“We have an Editors’ Forum that brings together all editors of the media in the country. You have journalists criticizing other journalists. They say, ‘What are you doing? What you are doing is not right.’

“In the near future, we are going to have more responsible journalists. The industry is still young.

“It is just because people don’t trust the media. If you don’t trust the media, you imagine what comes later on. And that is why people call me and say, ‘Faith, you should not ask that question, and from a young girl like you.’ It is the culture of an up-and-coming country like mine.”

Recently Mbabazi viewed a tape featuring an interview being conducted by CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour.

“Oh, if I could just be like her in my work. She is an amazing journalist.

“I just did a kind of comparison and I was like, ‘Why (doesn’t the public question Amanpour’s interviews)? We are all journalists. Why can she ask these questions?’ It is this whole thing of self censorship … probably because of our history and part of it is that you are not confident in yourself because of the capacity and resources.

“One reason people will not trust us is because we don’t trust ourselves. It is a question of how we are going to build the capacity of journalists in our country.

“There was no systematic training or any form of journalism school before the genocide. The first program at the University of Rwanda was founded in 1996.

“Things are taking a new change and I can see the change from being in the country 16 years ago. It is very good.”

IPI: What advice would you give other journalists about covering conflicts?

Mbabazi: “It’s all about learning from Rwanda. We are the best example to teach everybody.

“Learn to be a responsible journalist even if you have convinced yourself that you are a supporter of this or that.

“For us in Rwanda, just because the industry is new … at the back of every journalist’s mind is ‘How can I be the most trusted journalist in this country by providing the most fair and accurate and responsible report that is more of a solution rather than being destructive?’”

IPI: Can you tell us where you were 16 years ago and how the events of April to June 1994 changed your life?

Mbabazi: “I was 16 at the time of the genocide. At that age I wasn’t very politically involved, but you could tell what was being said on the radio. It wasn’t (considered) a shame at all to have a well known radio journalist broadcast that people should get rid of the Tutsis. If you were a responsible journalist that would never have happened.

“I hear the tapes (from the radio broadcasts 16 years ago) every day here and sometimes I listen to them and I am totally, totally amazed.”