Burundi : fuel shortage affects media work

Journalists are currently having difficulty moving around in search of information. This is linked to the lack of fuel that still has no solution. The quality of the information delivered depends on it.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The fuel crisis that has lasted almost 45 months has not spared the media in Burundi. A manager of an independent media outlet speaks of a situation “that is beyond us”.

“Before, we managed, we could take a taxi or rent a car for the day’s shopping. But today, we can no longer do it because it is very expensive”, laments a director of a private radio station broadcasting from the commercial capital Bujumbura, where United Nations agencies and the central administration are concentrated.

He indicates that the information broadcast in recent days no longer has any flavor due to the very delicate working conditions.

“Each journalist must manage to get to the field. Before, we took the bus but sometimes we spend more than an hour waiting in an empty parking lot, in vain. Sometimes, we are late and we are even prevented from entering”, regrets a local journalist.

Other colleagues, forced to walk, manage to collect the little information possible once they arrive on the field and try to send it to colleagues who have remained in the office for processing, especially via WhatsApp messaging.

Media managers say they are overwhelmed by the problem because no solution is possible. They say they are helplessly watching these poor working conditions. They still do their best to have the little to share with the public.

Sometimes, those with the information are forced to transport journalists or go themselves to the headquarters of certain media to deliver the information. If the situation remains as it is today, most private Burundian media may no longer keep their appointment with their audience.

Public media

Public media including RTNB (Burundi National Radio and Television) are suffering the same fate.

“With the fuel shortage, we should not expect to see a single employee in the office at 7:30 a.m. Worse still, each employee who wants to be absent will give the reason of lack of transport. Heads of departments can do nothing about it,” a senior journalist from RTNB told SOS Médias Burundi. The latter has a few full tanks, but with the fields in the interior of the country in the provinces and the news presenters who must show up on time, it is difficult to find a means of transport for all the staff. Normally, civil service employees in general, including those of RTNB, must be at their workplace at 7:30 a.m.

The Burundian Press Publications (PPB), a public media outlet, are also affected by the fuel crisis. In addition to the lack of means of transport for employees, the print run is no longer done as it should be because the fuel shortage is accompanied by repeated and prolonged power cuts, while even the operation of generators is not possible, as they consume gasoline.

The situation is aggravated by the general crisis that the small East African nation is going through, in a context marked by a lack of funding and resources as well as the decline in advertising.

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Journalists from independent media in an interview with Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, the famous Burundian human rights defender in exile today (SOS Médias Burundi)