Bocar Sy
Chief of Press and Public Affairs
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About this Video

Country of Origin:
Senegal
Interview Date:
October 30, 2008
Location:
Arusha, Tanzania
Interviewers:
Lisa P. Nathan
Donald J Horowitz
Videographer:
Nell Carden Grey
Timestamp:
45:46 - 53:29

Transcript

0:00
Donald J Horowitz: And you, you mentioned a number of ways of, of communicating, one of which is satellite transmission, another of which is a website, a third of which are newsletters. Now, can any member of the public subscribe to the newsletter pretty much or is it an internal newsletter?
0:22
No, it is, it is a . . .
0:24
DJH: It is a public newsletter?
0:25
Yes. I don’t know if, if you are in our, in our mailing list but if you are not in the mailing list you will be there very soon.
0:30
DJH: Okay.
0:31
Whenever . . .
0:32
DJH: Anybody can get on your mailing list?
0:34
Yes.
0:35
DJH: It’s a public . . .
0:36
Wha-, what’s happened is that this is, this is a monthly newsletter.
0:40
DJH: It’s a monthly newsletter?
0:41
Yes, with nice articles.
0:44
DJH: Okay.
0:45
It is not because I, I, I wrote there, but, but it is nice articles, my colleagues . . .
0:49
DJH: In, in what language-, in what languages is it published? Does it come through New York or does it come directly from here?
0:56
From here. It is, it is written in English, but, but we used to have one or two shared in French and English.
1:02
DJH: Okay.
1:02
After that we will go back to that one you know. Whatever is, is available French or English, we will publish it out, (____), but now the people are so used to, to the English that everybody’s publishing in English.
1:13
DJH: Okay.
1:14
And what has happened is that our mailing list which has – I don’t know how many, how many people are there. Let me, let me, let me try a figure, maybe, maybe 6,000 people are in, in, in just the mailing list because we have this mailing list which is the email addresses, the other one is for the faxes, the other one is something like that. We used to send the newsletter to, yes . . .
1:42
DJH: Hard copy.
1:43
Yes, but the problem is that they are too heavy because they have pictures in and some people are, I remember, used to com-, complain, not exactly but saying that it take them too long to download the newsletter, that’s why now, what we do is we put it in the website.
2:05
DJH: Yes.
2:05
Whenever you go to the website you will have the, the, the different issues of the newsletter there.
2:10
DJH: Okay, you can link to the newsletters?
2:11
You can link to the newsletter, but we continue also sending it to people, but if, if you complain saying that it takes you too long to download it and when you start downloading you cannot do anything because you know it takes the – the computer is you know, busy (__), yes . . .
2:29
DJH: It depends on how, how big your pipes are.
2:32
Yes, how big your pipes are, but . . .
2:33
DJH: Intern-, or, or how quickly . . .
2:35
But it is a, it is a public one which everybody can, can have access and it is available for everyone.
2:40
DJH: Okay. But it’s in English?
2:42
It is in English yes.
2:43
DJH: Do you have any special newsletter that goes over to Rwanda? Or a bulletin, or something?
2:50
But this one I can say, this one is, is, is also made for – yeah, I see what you mean. We used at, at the beginning, at the beginning you see how, how things can change. At the beginning we used to publish in three languages: English, French and Kinyarwanda. We used to do it. But at that time one of, one of my colleagues, the staff working with me, a very, very – was, was, was a journalist first of all, but also a translator. I mean, he used to (____), whatever, translator, a paper in English, in, in Kinyarwanda.
3:41
That, that, that gave us at that time the opportunity to publish in two languages. We used to do that but now that, that person is no longer with us. It is a little difficult for us to publish in Kinyarwanda. And for the French, we’re not publishing in French because everybody's speaking English first of all here, that's, that’s one of, of the main reason. And people prefer to explain themselves in English, I don’t know why.
4:15
I was, I was maybe one, one, one of the rare people you know, writing in, in French and maybe some of my colleagues at the chambers, but all the people they used to, to write in English, that’s why maybe we have put aside these, these two languages, but, but we have some publications in, in, in Kinyarwanda. We have a leaflet publishing in, in Kinyarwanda which . . .
4:40
DJH: Does it come out of your Kigali office or come out of here?
4:43
Come out from here, yes. It is something that we prepare here, we release from here and we send it to, send it to Kigali. We have, we have posters; we have brochures in, in Kinyarwanda that we publish also.
4:58
DJH: And when an important judgment comes out or something like that, do you put, put it on a bulletin or something like that for the people in . . .
5:06
When, when, when a, when a, when a very important, very important – all the judgments are important here, first of all.
5:11
DJH: Yes.
5:12
What we do is that we inform our office . . .
5:15
DJH: In Kigali.
5:16
. . . in Kigali because we have this satellite link. What we do is that we inform them, we issue a media alert informing not only them but all, all the world about what is coming – what will come.
5:32
And we request the translation section to be ready to transmit or to broadcast the Kinyarwanda version because you know that at the courtroom we’re working with, in three languages, French, English and Kinyarwanda. Because most of our witnesses are from Rwanda and they speak Kinyarwanda.
6:01
That, that is what we do. All our judgment, if, if I’m not wrong, that have been broadcast or transmitted to Rwanda are transmitted in Kinyarwanda. We send the Kin-, the signal with the Kinyarwanda version to Rwanda for them to be able to follow it, to listen to it.
6:20
And also they have the possibility to have the other languages but we, we give the privilege you know, we, we, we give the lead to the, to the, to the Kinyarwanda version. That is what we usually do. And I remember that we used to go to the, to the field to the, to the, to the countryside to broadcast the judgment when it concern an accused person coming from that part.
6:50
DJH: Or an event that co-, happened in that part.
6:52
Yes.
6:53
DJH: Like in, for example, Butare.
6:55
Buta-, like, like in Butare, the day, the day we will have the judgment of Butare we would broadcast it in Butare for sure. We’ll broadcast it, we, we will send the signal to Kigali, but we will transmit it to Butare. We will, we’ll do it in the, the, the central place of the village or whatever but it will be done in, in, in Butare.
7:18
DJH: Yeah, I think you would, I think you would agree as a journalist that it’s not only important that justice be done but it’s also important that justice be seen.
7:27
Be seen, yes. Known and seen, yes.
7:30
DJH: Yes. And that, that help, may help in reconciliation to have justice be seen . . .
7:36
Yes.