The incredible story of the rise of dictatorship and the fall of open speech, as told by the last free journalists to remain in Rwanda

Hearing a blast, journalist Anjan Sundaram headed uphill towards the sound. Grenade explosions are not entirely unusual in the city of Kigali; dissidents throw them in public areas to try and destabilise the government and, since moving to Rwanda, he had observed an increasing number of them. What was unusual about this one, however, was that when Sundaram arrived, it was as though nothing had happened. Traffic circulated as normal, there was no debris on the streets and the policeman on duty denied any event whatsoever. This was evidence of a clean-up, a cloaking of the discontent in Rwanda and a desire to silence the media in a country most of whose citizens were without internet. This was the first of many ominous events. Bad News is the extraordinary account of the battle for free speech in modern-day Rwanda. Following not only those journalists who stayed, despite fearing torture or even death from a ruthless government, but also those reporting from exile, it is the story of papers being shut down, of lies told to please foreign delegates, of the unshakeable loyalty that can be bred by terror, of history being retold, of constant surveillance, of corrupted elections and of great courage. It tells the true narrative of Rwandan society today and, in the face of powerful forces, of the fight to make explosions heard.

"Required reading … A superb exposé of a dictatorship as he observes how the tentacles of totalitarianism squeeze the life from a society. Bad News is an important book that should shatter any lingering faith people might hold in Kagame’s hideous regime … This is a desolate work, taut prose describing the stifling atmosphere of a nation trapped in fear" - Guardian

"Superb, timely ... It is nothing less than the best book written about Rwanda by an outsider, a massively important contribution to understanding what is one of Africa's most important, inscrutable, regimes" - All In Africa

"Powerful and shocking" - Sunday Times

"A sensitive writer. He feels deeply and expresses himself richly ... a powerful evocation of the foreign correspondent’s experience" - The Times

"One of the finest works of reportage in living memory" - The Australian

"Sundaram immediately captures the paranoia one feels in a country where citizens are both censored and self-censoring … Delicate and evocative prose … Subtle reminders of the country’s violent past echo throughout the book … This book is a timely one" - Irish Times

"A chilling and valuable account of conditions inside Rwanda" - Sunday Herald

"Stark and at times desolate, Sundaram has written a harrowing account of life in “a mirage of a country” where the all-seeing presence of President Kagame has managed not only to destroy free institutions and free speech, but ultimately free thought as well" - Irish Examiner