Rwanda is on a Very Dangerous Path

The journalist Anjan Sundaram is the author of the new book Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship, which details how the creeping authoritarianism of the Rwandan government has silenced the free press, even as that government is treated as a darling of the international community for its impressive economic gains following the genocide.

In 2009, Anjan took a job teaching journalism in Rwanda. He soon saw that something was amiss. His students were harassed, beaten and one colleague murdered. Other journalists were simply co-opted into the state propaganda machine. After speaking with Anjan for this interview, it's hard not to conclude that suppression of dissent in Rwanda is putting that country on a very dangerous path.

This is a fascinating conversation and I suspect that this book will get a great deal of attention in foreign policy and human rights circles.

We kick off discussing the history of President Paul Kagame, and his recent controversial decision to amend the constitut…