Barred from Rwanda
The Rwandan government did not grant me media accreditation to attend a key international AIDS conference this week
I am meant to be in Kigali, Rwanda, today for the start of the International AIDS Society’s Conference on HIV Science. The Rwandan government had other plans, though. Officials did not issue me the media accreditation that is required to report from the conference.
Colleagues who applied with the same credentials as I did were approved within two weeks of submitting their application. When I checked this morning, four weeks after I put in my request, my application was still pending.
This is not necessarily a surprise. Rwandan officials regularly deploy this tactic to censor anyone who dares criticize their regime. Rather than outright rejecting a journalist, officials just allow their media accreditation to languish, which has the same practical effect of blocking access.
In my case, I assume I am being barred because of reporting I did after Israel began flying immigrants out of the country to Rwanda, promising them a visa and a job upon arrival. Instead, as I revealed, Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s regime was forcing them out of the country without any protection or papers. (It is a story that remains sadly relevant, as governments like the United Kingdom and the United States look to deport more people to Rwanda.)
It is troubling that the International AIDS Society, or IAS, the organizers behind the conference, would give Rwanda the power to determine who can cover their conference. Particularly since there is abundant evidence of Kagame’s regime restricting both domestic and international journalists and silencing critics.
Indeed, it was the IAS media team that insisted I must get media accreditation from the Rwandan government in order to attend. In the email with those instructions, IAS also wrote that if I had any concerns, I should contact them. As it became clear that my application faced an unusual delay, I did just that, asking for advice or any support they could offer. I never received a response.
The IAS has faced repeated criticism over who can access its conferences. In the past, though, the focus has been on their decision to host events in countries in the global north – Canada, Germany – that have then refused visas to attendees from the global south. This discrimination has been roundly, and deservedly, condemned.
I know, then, that there was a lot of enthusiasm about hosting the conference in Kigali. The location would open up access to people from Africa – the epicenter of the global HIV response – to more easily secure visas and affordably reach the conference.
In addition, Rwanda has been a standout when it comes to tackling HIV. I’ve even written about this. The conference offers Rwandan officials a stage to share valuable lessons about their success in surpassing global HIV targets.
But it will also contribute to the ongoing effort to distract from Rwanda’s grim human rights violations by touting its impressive development efforts. These violations extend beyond limiting press freedom and speech. Even as it silences dissent internally, the government has been credibly accused of murdering and attacking critics who live outside its borders.
Why would the IAS then allow that same government to determine which journalists are allowed to attend its conference?
In more than a decade of attending IAS-organized conferences, I have never had to apply for media accreditation. The organizers should have questioned why the Rwandan government, then, would introduce this requirement.
It also speaks to the regime’s fragility that it seemingly cannot bear to allow me – and who knows how many other journalists – to even cover a conference within its borders.
This whole episode is particularly shameful because the conference comes at a critical moment. With the international AIDS response under threat by the Trump administration, organizers plan to unveil research that begins to quantify exactly how many people will be affected by Washington’s foreign aid cuts. I was eager not just to attend these presentations, but to actually speak to the researchers behind these studies. And also to the representatives from the communities who can bear witness to their findings.
Though I have access to the conference virtually, these are not conversations I can easily organize from behind a computer screen. That is why I had hoped to have them in Kigali.
Wow! This is crazy!