## Facts

- In 1994, large-scale killings targeted Tutsi civilians and moderate Hutu in Rwanda over roughly three months.
- Three media and political figures were tried jointly: Ferdinand Nahimana (RTLM founder/ideologue), Jean‑Bosco Barayagwiza (RTLM executive and senior CDR figure), and Hassan Ngeze (founder and editor-in-chief of *Kangura*).
- The Trial Chamber found RTLM and *Kangura* functioned as a coordinated media front aligned with Hutu Power political actors, using propaganda to mobilize hostility against Tutsi.
- *Kangura* published repeated anti-Tutsi material, including the “Ten Commandments” of the Hutu, inflammatory images and editorials, and lists identifying alleged “traitors.”
- RTLM broadcasts before and after 6 April 1994 dehumanized Tutsi, urged violence, named individuals, and provided location-specific information that facilitated attacks.
- Evidence also addressed meetings and activities connected to the accused involving political strategy, demonstrations, roadblocks, weapons distribution, and killings.
- The Tribunal’s temporal jurisdiction covered 1994; earlier publications and statements were considered to establish context and intent.

## Issues

1. Whether media publications and broadcasts can constitute genocide, including through instigation or participation in collective criminal activity.
2. Whether the accused’s speech amounted to direct and public incitement to commit genocide as an independent crime.
3. Whether discriminatory propaganda and targeting through media can constitute crimes against humanity (persecution, extermination, and, for Ngeze, murder).
4. Whether the accused incurred liability through personal participation (commission, ordering, instigation, aiding and abetting) and/or superior responsibility for subordinates’ criminal broadcasts or publications.
5. How pre-1994 speech and publications could be used given the Tribunal’s 1994 temporal jurisdiction.

## Decision

- The Trial Chamber convicted Nahimana of genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, and crimes against humanity (persecution and extermination), and imposed a life sentence.
- The Trial Chamber convicted Barayagwiza of genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, and crimes against humanity (persecution and extermination), and imposed a 35-year sentence (reduced from life due to earlier procedural rights violations).
- The Trial Chamber convicted Ngeze of genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, and crimes against humanity (extermination, persecution, and murder), and imposed a life sentence.
- The Chamber treated pre-1994 publications and statements as relevant evidence of context and intent, while grounding criminal liability in conduct within the Tribunal’s temporal jurisdiction.

## Legal Principles

- Direct and public incitement to commit genocide is punishable as an inchoate offense; liability depends on the directness and publicity of the call to destroy a protected group, assessed in context.
- Speech that explicitly urges killing or extermination of a protected group, especially in a charged social setting and as part of a sustained pattern, may satisfy the “direct and public” incitement element.
- Hate propaganda may support crimes against humanity when it intentionally and severely infringes fundamental rights on discriminatory grounds; such speech can constitute persecution.
- Media actors may be responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity where their communications intentionally and substantially contribute to mass violence, including by identifying targets and facilitating attacks.
- Individual criminal responsibility includes commission, ordering, instigation, and aiding and abetting through media operations and content.
- Superior responsibility may attach where a media leader has effective authority over personnel and fails to prevent or punish subordinates’ criminal broadcasts or publications.
- Conduct outside temporal jurisdiction may be admissible to prove intent, knowledge, and context for charged crimes within jurisdiction.

## Conclusion

The Trial Chamber held that senior media figures and political actors could be criminally liable for genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, and crimes against humanity when broadcasts and publications were used as tools to mobilize and direct violence against a protected group, and when those in control of media operations participated in or failed to prevent such crimes.


Prosecutor v. Nahimana, Case No. ICTR-99-52-T (ICTR Trial Chamber I 2003)