Posts Tagged ‘Uganda’
September 17th, 2010
A radio news anchor and opposition political activist in Uganda’s central district Mukono was
beaten to death with metal bars on 13 September. Dickson Ssentongo routinely
read the 7 a.m. news bulletins for Prime Radio station in the Luganda language, but now becomes the second journalist to be killed in the country in three days. On Saturday, the journalist Paul Kiggundu was
beaten to death by taxi-drivers. Both Kiggindu and Ssetongo died in hospital some hours after being attacked. No arrests have been made in either case.
September 14th, 2010
A correspondent for Uganda’s Tower of Praise Radio was
beaten to death by motorcycle taxi drivers on the night of 11 September. Paul Kiggundu was ambushed by the bikers, known locally as
boda-boda, while he was filming some of them demolishing a house. The drivers accused Kiggundu of working for the police, despite his attempts to identify himself as a journalist. The building was reportedly the home of another driver, Frank Kagayi, who the attackers accuse of committing
murder and robbery. The journalist died of internal bleeding at Kalisizo Government Hospital. No arrests have been made.
August 27th, 2010
The Constitutional Court has declared Uganda’s
law on sedition null and void. Journalists will no longer be legally prevented from criticising President Yoweri Museveni or his government. A panel of five judges ruled on 25 August that the law violated the public’s right to free speech, which is guaranteed in Uganda’s constitution. The executive secretary of the Media Council of Uganda
Haruna Kanaabi said that the law has often been used as a way of silencing dissent, particularly ahead of next year’s general elections.
The government has announced that it will be appeal to the Supreme Court against the decision.
March 25th, 2010
The International Press Institute has
accused the Ugandan government of conducting a “well-planned campaign to stifle the media” ahead of next year’s election. Wangethi Mwangi, Kenyan board member of the global organisation, cited the Press and Journalist Amendment Bill as proof of the president’s Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s efforts to silence the East African country’s independent press. This legislation, if passed, will give authorities the power to revoke the licenses of media organisations if they publish material deemed “prejudicial to national security”.
February 8th, 2010
Two reporters from The Monitor newspaper, Angelo Izama and Charles Mwanguhya Mpagi Izama
lost an appeal to compel the government to release papers relating to oil deals, when the judge decided the information was
not in the public interest.
Izama was arrested and bailed for
criminal libel last week in an unrelated case.
February 4th, 2010
Henry Ochieng, editor of the
Daily Monitor news magazine and
Angelo Izama, a senior reporter were
charged with criminal libel yesterday after a complaint from President Yoweri Museveni about an article that compared him to Ferdinand Marcos, former leader of the Philippines. The journalists have been released on bail, pending the trial on 25 February.
January 19th, 2010
On 18 January at least
30 women were detained in Kampala while attempting to deliver a petition calling for the resignation of the electoral commission chief Badru Kiggundu, who they say is unable to organise credible and fair elections, scheduled for 2011. The women, members of a group called InterParty Cooperation, were wearing T-shirts with the slogan ‘Women for Peace’; “they forcefully loaded us on police vehicles like sacks of beans even when we had voluntarily accepted arrest,” said the chair of the opposition women’s league, Ingrid Turinawe.
Police say they are likely to be charged with criminal trespass, unlawful assembly and inciting violence.
December 21st, 2009
Trevor Phillips, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission has said the BBC may be sanctioned if comments made by the public on its website do not comply with Labour’s new anti-discrimination laws. The move follows public criticism pver the BBC hosting an online debate on its news website asking whether gays should be executed in relation to a proposed anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda. Mark Stephens, a media lawyer who has been leading a commonwealth campaign against a proposed law in Uganda said: “ We must protect freedom of speech whether it is offensive or not. The alternative is to drive the debate underground.” Read more
here
