In this excellent and well-organised volume, Allan Thompson brings together a diverse team of writers to consider the media and the Rwandan genocide. There are two principal themes: the role that Rwandan media played in fueling the 1994 genocide, and the failures and responsibilities of international reporters to report mass atrocities. Neither topic is new, but at least three dimensions set this volume apart. First, the domestic and international angles are rarely considered together. Second, the book incorporates multiple viewpoints, ones that span discipline, profession and opinion. And third, the book is comprehensive, with essays on Nigerian and Kenyan newspaper coverage of the genocide, to journalists' eyewitness accounts, to media repression in contemporary Rwanda.

The book is ambitious. Thompson, a former reporter for the Toronto Star and currently assistant professor at Carleton University in Canada, has assembled a collection with 35 distinct chapters and an opening statement from Kofi Annan. There are introductory chapters by eminent personalities on Rwanda, such as Canadian General Roméo Dallaire and human rights activist Alison Des Forges. The main text is divided into four sections: (1) the domestic media in Rwanda during and before the genocide; (2) international (including African media) coverage of the genocide; (3) the trial of three journalists at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), for which judgments were handed down in December 2003; and (4) media in Rwanda after the genocide.

Each section has some predictable essays, but especially valuable are those written by authors infrequently heard in the literature on Rwanda. For example, in the first section, there is a terrific series of essays by Rwandan academics and journalists. Charles Mironko presents a rare discussion of how the notoriously inflammatory radio station, Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines (RTLM), was received by Rwandan perpetrators in rural areas. A former director of Rwanda's information office, Jean-Marie Vianney Higiro, discusses the print media before the genocide. Both raise questions about simplistic accounts of hate media in Rwanda driving the genocide. In addition, Thomas Kamilindi offers a moving account of life and survival as an independent-minded reporter before and during the genocide. Kenyan journalist Mary Kimani, who reported on the ICTR's Media Trial, offers one of the few existing quantitative content analyses of RTLM's broadcasts.

The section on international coverage of Rwanda is especially strong. There are powerful essays by some of the few international reporters who were in Rwanda during the genocide, including Mark Doyle, Lindsey Hilsum and Nick Hughes. The section includes previously published critical essays by Linda Melvern and Alan Kuperman, in which the latter criticises ‘the media’ for failing to cover the genocide story well and for being ‘fooled’ (pp. 258–9). Seen alongside the difficulties the journalists' accounts highlight, Kuperman's blunt criticisms seem misplaced. The section also includes some noteworthy academic studies. Steven Livingston has an important essay challenging the ‘CNN effect’ notion that media coverage of humanitarian crises drives foreign policy; rather, he argues persuasively that national interests and other political dynamics are primary determinants. A fascinating study by Melissa Wall analyses images of Rwanda and Rwandans in US newsmagazine coverage; she shows how such representations were similar to other media accounts of Africa.

The third section – on the ICTR Media Trial –is less rich, but still rewarding. The book reproduces the executive summary of the ICTR's judgment, followed by two forceful essays by prosecution attorneys. But there follows a trenchant critique of the ICTR's decision by defence attorney Jean-Marie Biju-Duval, who represented Ferdinand Nahimana (who was a founding member of RTLM).

The fourth section is the most eclectic, with essays on how and when international actors can intervene to short-circuit dangerous media situations, on the portrayal of genocide in film, and on using media for peace-building. There are two stand-out essays. One is by Lars Waldorf, who documents media repression under the current regime in Rwanda, and who presents one of the most concise extant accounts of the unpropitious human rights environment in post-genocide Rwanda. The second is by Thompson, who makes a case for a new journalistic doctrine: the ‘responsibility to report’ atrocities in faraway lands. The practicalities of the doctrine remain a little vague in the essay, but Thompson's idea is intriguing and worthy of further discussion.

Collected volumes often do not cohere well. Thompson's collection is an exception, and it additionally demonstrates the value of edited books. The reader is treated to a range of approaches and opinions that would be hard to find in a single-authored monograph.