Last Journalists in a Dictatorship
by
Anjan Sundaram

In Stringer: A Reporter's Journey into the Congo, Anjan Sundaram covered the Democratic Republic of the Congo's descent into civil war and near-anarchy. In Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship, he documents Rwanda's transition from the horrors of genocide into an Orwellian dictatorship. The memoir ostensibly covers Sundaram's time running a training program for journalists in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda. However, the author takes a backseat in the narrative to his students, some of whom channel their training and idealism into a heroic last stand for free, independent journalism in Rwanda.

Early on in the book, one of Sundaram's most talented students explains the cruel deceit at the heart of Rwandan society by pointing to the street lights: "You would thinkfrom the street lights that Rwanda is a resource-rich country. But only four percent of Rwanda's people have electricity in their houses.... But this is the first thing visitors see. And this is impressive, they are stunned by the small country in Africa that has come through a genocide, and now has such roads, such lights." Sundaram notes again and again the vast amount of financial aid given to Rwanda's government by well-meaning but ignorant foreign countries and organizations, money that President Kagame uses to throttle dissenting voices. Bad News is an attempt to shed light on a side of Rwanda hidden to most foreigners, but also a memorial to those who give their lives, well-being and even their sanity to the cause of free speech. --Hank Stephenson,