Thread by @FeminismInIndia

#THREAD: Trigger Warning: Genocide, murder On the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Rwanda Genocide we look at the role media plays in state-sponsored violence. (1/10)

Between April and June 1994, an estimated 1 million Rwandans were killed in the space of 100 days. Most of the dead were Tutsis - and most of those who perpetrated the violence were Hutus. (2/10)

The Indian mainstream media too has been following the same path, where they propagate the “Us” vs “Them” idea. (3/10)

In both Rwanda and in India media platforms furthered violence by propagating hate speech and opening their platforms to speakers who encouraged violence. (4/10)

Even as the media platforms reported on the Delhi riots of 2020, they chose, cut and moulded the news to the benefit of those in power. (5/10)

Media under the current government has seen constant intervention by the those in power, for political gains. (6/10)

Hate-speech has become a money minting strategy as TRPs skyrocket with the increasing nationalist sentiment in the country. (7/10)

Even after so many years, the Rwandan Genocide still has a lot to teach in terms of the central role of media in state violence. (8/10)

"The newspaper and the radio explicitly and repeatedly, in fact relentlessly, targeted the Tutsi population for destruction. The media called for the extermination of the Tutsi ethnic group as a response to the political threat." -International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (9/10)

"The problem with the electronic media is all about TRPs, leading to more and more sensationalism, damage reputation of people and masquerade as form of right." - Supreme Court of India (10/10)
#RwandaGenocide #MassMedia