CPJ joined about 100 other human rights and press freedom organizations in a joint statement calling on the Rwandan government to ensure an “independent, impartial, and effective investigation” into the death of journalist John Williams Ntwali.
Authorities said that Ntwali died on January 18 in a traffic accident in the capital city of Kigali. However, the organizations note, “two weeks after the alleged accident, Rwandan authorities have failed to provide a police report, the exact location of the alleged accident, any photo or video evidence, or detailed information on the others involved in it.”
Ntwali frequently received threats in connection to his critical journalism. Given Rwanda’s failure to investigate past “suspicious deaths of political opponents or high-profile critics,” the organizations call for international experts on arbitrary killings to be involved in the investigation.
Separately, CPJ Director of Special Projects Robert Mahoney wrote an opinion piece arguing that former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s attack on journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s reputation in his memoir is “a gift to enemies of press freedom.”
Pompeo “dismissed the reaction to one of the most brazen murders of journalists in the past half century as ‘faux outrage…fueled by the media’” and called the slain Washington Post columnist an activist, not a journalist, Mahoney writes.
He adds, “when U.S. public figures undermine journalism for political or economic gain, they send a message to leaders everywhere that journalists are fair game.” Pompeo’s book was released days after CPJ reported that 2022 saw the highest number of journalists killed worldwide since 2018.
CPJ joins calls for credible investigation into death of Rwandan journalist John Williams Ntwali
