Op vrijdag 2 mei 2025 vierden we samen met de VUB en ULB Difference Day, een dag volledig in het teken van de persvrijheid.

Twee laureaten ontvingen de Difference Day Honorary Title for Freedom of Expression: Cecilia Anesi, Italiaanse onderzoeksjournaliste, voor het Investigative Reporting Project Italy (IRPI) en Samuel Baker Byansi, Rwandees onderzoeksjournalist.

Onze voorzitter Alicja Gescinska sprak het laudatio voor Samuel Baker Byansi uit:

Good evening everyone, good evening friends and colleagues,

You only know if you are a courageous person, if ever you had to be one. Real bravery is a matter of life and death, you engage your whole heart, mind and body in the act.

The reason why I begin about courage is that tonight’s laureate of the DD Honorary Title 2025 is a courageous man: Samuel Baker Byansi. Baker Byansi has faced fear, death threats, torture, exile, all kinds of hardships and deprivation for speaking out, for doing his job, for being a journalist and a writer, for trying to hold president Kagame, who rules with an iron fist in Rwanda, to account. He has upheld – in word and deed – the creed of speaking truth to power.

It is one thing to sympathise with this creed in countries like Belgium, where you are protected by the law to speak up your mind. But it is a whole different thing, and it requires a whole different level of courage, to do so in regimes where human rights hardly mean a thing, where violence, torture, imprisonment, expulsion or death are the price to be paid.

The life story of Baker Byansi seems perfect material for a Hollywood movie, not one with glitter and glamour but one of hardships. When he was a baby of no more than one month old, the genocide in Rwanda began. He subsequently became aware of the role of media and propaganda on the minds and even the hearts of fellow men. It imprinted a deep, and crucial belief in his mind: truth and facts may never be sacrificed for political purposes. The press may never turn into a vehicle of political propaganda. Journalists are the principle watchdogs of democracy. Journalism is not a job, it’s a calling, a vocation, as he says himself.

As an investigative journalist and as a writer, Baker Byansi has turned this belief into concrete acts. In his book From Watchdogs to Traitors he explores how the media in Rwanda operates, or rather fails to fulfil its task as the Fourth Estate.

The price he has paid for writing and seeking the truth is high. He has had to flee Rwanda, leaving wife and child behind. He arrived in Europe, lived a while on the streets, but with the help of a few people, he got his life on the rails again. And he is now reunited with his family, and continues to speak out against those who abuse their power, and to speak up for those who are abused. Samuel is more than a journalist, he is a human rights defender. He has co-founded a platform and media-outlet specialized in investigative journalism, namely M28 investigates. The platform offers training and education. It is a valuable support for young journalists in Sub-Saharan Africa, it’s a tool which helps them to seek the truth and speak out. Because Samuel Baker Byansi is aware that dismantling a corrupt regime is a joint effort. If critical voices are being silenced or don’t even have the opportunity to become a voice, then the battle is lost.

But Baker Byansi gives hope. He believes that one day he will return to Rwanda, and if not he, his children will read the fruits of his courage.

Dear esteemed audience, do yourself a favour and remember his name. Samuel Baker Byansi has, on the one hand, already done and proven so much. On the other hand he is also still at the beginning of a great journey. He is currently working on a new book on modern dictatorship and meanwhile, he is also planning to study again, studies in international and human rights law, to develop a firm legal backbone for his work, as a journalist, writer and human rights defender. Justice is his mission, and justice will prevail.

I would like to end with a quote of his, which is an advice or rather a moral call, to you and to me, to people who live in a privileged world, where we don’t have to fear for our lives or those of our dear ones when we write, think, speak. ‘Use your privilege to strengthen the voice of colleagues in regions where there are no such freedoms.’

Dear friends and colleagues, let us begin with a heartfelt applause for Samuel Baker Byansi, and let us strengthen his voice from today onwards.

Alicja Gescinska, president PEN Flanders

Foto’s: Thierry Geenen