Burundi’s Journalists Are Using SoundCloud to Get Round a Government Shutdown of Independent Radio

Half-past noon in Burundi once looked the same each day. From the paved streets of the capital city Bujumbura to the countryside’s dusty roads, everyone stopped what they were doing, pulled out their phone, and tuned into the Radio Publique Africaine’s news program.

But since political unrest broke out in April, a government crackdown on independent press has left the country in a media blackout. Independent radio studios have been attacked, roughly 50 reporters have fled the country, and Radio Nationale–a government-run station which has denied protests are even taking place–is the only radio left broadcasting. Until now.