International Freedom of Expression Exchange: The global network for free expression
10 March 1998
Alert
Andre Sibomana dies following an illness
Incident details
Andre Sibomana journalist(s) other**Updates IFEX alerts dated 2 and 12 May 1995, 22 and 27 November 1995**
(RSF/IFEX) - RSF expresses it profound sadness at the news that Andre
Sibomana, priest and journalist, died during the weekend of 7 March 1998
following an illness. He was 43 years old at the time of his death.
Sibomana, ex editor-in-chief of the Catholic bimonthly "Kinyamateka", was a
long-time grassroots militant. RSF honored Sibomana in 1994 with the RSF -
Fondation of France prize, for having defended freedom of information at
considerable risk to himself. Sibomana turned "Kinyamateka" into the most
serious newspaper in Rwanda, and became the "father of journalism" to many
of his colleagues. Sibomana's writings resulted in several death threats
against him and forced him to go underground on a few occasions. Sibomana
was also the founder of the Rwandan Association for the Defense of Human
Rights (l'Association rwandaise pour la défense des droits de l'homme) and
president of the Rwandan Association of Journalists (l'Association des
journalistes rwandais).
According to RSF, "with Andre Sibomana's death, an unconditional defender of
human rights is gone, one of the rare Rwandan figures to have consistently
refused to base his views along ethnic lines."
Source:
Reporters Without Borders
47, rue Vivienne
75002 Paris
France
rsf (@) rsf.org
Phone: +33 1 44 83 84 84
Fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51
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