Today, the media fraternity in Uganda has joined the rest of the world to commemorate the World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) this Friday May 3rd 2024.
May 3rd acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom and is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics. It is also a day of remembrance for those journalists who lost their lives in the pursuit of a story.
WPFD celebrations were first officially proclaimed during the United Nations General Assembly in Windhoek Namibia 1993. The call for international calendar to observe the importance of media freedom was originally made at a meeting in Namibia when African journalists convened in partnership with UNESCO in 1991.The international celebrations for this year will be held under the theme; “A Press for the Planet, Journalism in the face of Environmental Crisis”.
In Uganda, the Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) with its partners; the Uganda Media Women Association (UMWA), Uganda Journalists Union (UJU),
Entertainment Journalists Association of Uganda (EJAU), Media Challenge Initiative (MCI), Church of Uganda Media Association (CHOUMA), My Tree Initiative (MTI) and MPS from the Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Media (UPFM), is leading the celebrations in line with the theme, with an objective of advancing the press freedom as well as advocating for the pivotal role of journalism in environmental conservation and other aspects such as democracy, good governance, patriotism, human rights, socio economic transformation, development.
Through various organized activities, the initiative seeks to push for the government, development partners and other stakeholder’s recommitment to the ideals of press freedom and those highlighted aspects Plight of Journalists in Uganda; 2024 WPFD commemoration is being held in the wake of increased challenges against the enjoyment of press freedom as follows:
- Persistent Harassment of journalists.
In just one month of February 2024, four journalists were arrested, detained and tortured by the police officers while in line of duty. These were Julius Tukacungurwa of Umoja Standard News who was arrested for writing against one NRM party official and detained at Jinja road police station for quite long with his work tools; phones and a laptop. Shamelessly one police officer there acted as an agent for the complainant to keep the journalist in cells. He was later released on bond when UJA intervened with calls for his unconditional release.
Julius Mugaga Tukacungurwa, CEO Umoja Standard News Agency
Moses Lemisa with Vision Group was brutally tortured into coma at Mulago-Kapapaali police post by 2 police officers with impunity, who were led by Commissioner John Peter Ematu. He was hospitalized at St Stephen C.O.U Hospital -Mpererwe for many days and he still painfully have psychological and physical marks on his body. Paul Mugaba of Delta TV and Ggaliwango with Vision Group, were arrested and detained at the Old Kampala police station as they covered a story which was un desired to some senior police officers there. They were also later released following our intervention with calls for their release. We feel that such acts pose a serious limitation to the press freedom and must therefore come to an end.
- Exploitation of journalists.
Suffice to note is that, more than 100 hundred journalists have lost employment as of January 2024 and Friday 3 May 2024, arising out of sackings by different media houses and they can now hardly survive with their families. All the multimedia companies in Uganda have sacked journalists citing the economic hardships in the country. Some media houses have altered the employment status of journalists from permanency to casual in violation of contractual obligations, which has adversely impacted the quality of journalism and welfare. The said economic challenges cannot be used as justification for the sackings since the exploitation of journalists has been going on for quite long with impunity. We feel this has far reaching implications on journalism practice, and therefore must stop.
The line ICT and National Guidance ministry should be put to task to explain why it has not made any remedial intervention in relation to a litany of reports and complaints concerning the plight of journalists that have been drawn to its attention, despite having annual budget from the government.
With the view of the above, we hereby make our humble request to:
- Court dispose of an application that was filed by the two New Vision journalists Timothy Murungi, Henry Sekanjako and the Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) in February 2021, challenging the brutalization of journalists by some UPDF officers while in line of duty at the UN Human Rights offices in Kololo. The petition was filed with the High Court civil division in Kampala against 8 individual officers and the Attorney General but is yet to be determined. This doesn’t suggest to say that we are not aware of the staffing challenges in the judiciary that impact Court services, but we are simply making a humble call with a feel that if a ruling was given around now in that matter, it would help a lot with laying out deterrents against further un precedented attacks on journalists in future.
- Parliament to make urgent interventions into the violation of journalist’s economic rights through its lawful duty.
- His Excellence the President, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to fulfil his promise of putting money in the Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) SACCO like it has been done with other professionals as it will alternatively and partly help with addressing the exploitation plight.
In conclusion; we thank all our partners and players in the sector that have embraced our call of working together in pushing for positive reforms in the sector and we strongly believe that together we shall achieve more since unity is power. We equally encourage all journalists to remain united with a common strong voice against any violation of press freedom.
The Sunday 5th 2024 organized Media Football Gala is one of our innovative tools that we strongly believe will foster good will and unity amongst the media fraternity and members of the public. We thank media houses, media organizations and non-media organizations that have registered teams for the 2024 WPFD Gala. Fixtures for the Gala on that note will be out anytime from now. We therefore, call upon all journalists, advocates of press freedom and members of the public including journalists’ well-wishers to turn up in large numbers at City Secondary School near DHL offices -Lugogo by pass in Kampala, this Sunday to support their teams.
“The Pen is Mightier than the Gun.’’
MATHIAS RUKUNDO, PRESIDENT UJA