BY IRENE ABALO OTTO
“Journalists cameras are broken, they are beaten up and there is no clear reason as to why they are being beaten. Yet somebody had indicted clearly that they are journalists. They are doing their job,” said Mr Daniel Walyemera, the Dean Faculty of Law at Cavendish University said on Wednesday.
Violence meted against journalists in the recent past by mainly the state and its agencies in Uganda is worrying stakeholders and advocates of press freedom. They say this puts the country’s democracy at stake.
Mr Walyemera was speaking during a virtual dialogue on the findings of the 2020 Press Freedom Index released last month by Human Rights Network for Journalists Uganda. The report indicates a fragile relationship between the state and the media which, it emerged, is degrading not just democracy but all the other tenets of democracy.
The report details cases of what happened to and in the media in the face of Covid-19 and elections.
Ms Ruth Ssenkindi, the Director Monitoring and Inspection at the Uganda Human Rights Commission said during the panel discussion that there is need for the state and stakeholders to understand the work that journalists do and the role it plays in the development of a democratic state.
“Access to public information is so hard because many times they feel that it is classified but we have an Information Act. Unfortunately, it is not implemented. The state also has an obligation to protect media practitioners from any violations, to protect them from their employers, from interferences. You have heard of some politicians blocked from accessing a particular radio station because a call has come in from some particular individual. All these are in contravention of the state obligations,” Ms Ssenkindi explained.
Ms Ssenkindi said that the state and any other aggrieved party at the work that journalists do should bear in mind that the journalists only get content from their sources.
“Do not shoot the messenger. Because many times the media is just reporting what is out there. Yet they end up in harms way because of what they are reporting. We have also noted that there is a lot of self censorship. Many times you do not get the real story. There is political censorship, insecurity censorship, moral censorship based in religion. The commission has also noted that the condition of work of media practitioners are not satisfactory which exposes them to vulnerabilities,” said Ms Ssenkindi.
The need to have a uniform voice within the media industry to have better negotiation and bargaining power to muscle the many informal power centres in the field of journalism was also emphasised to enable press freedom in Uganda.
Mr Joseph Beyanga, the Secretary National Association of Broadcasters, an umbrella body for broadcasters in Uganda notes that the absence of the Communications Tribunal that the Uganda Communications Act, 2013 stipulates should be in place makes it difficult for journalism to have a uniform position when courts of law is not a readily available solution to some challenges in the media.
“One of the big issues which we kept pushing is the constitution of the communications tribunal. Since 2013 up to now, nothing has happened. When you talk to people who are supposed to be providing for it, they tell you the judicial service commission is supposed to make recommendations to the president then the president makes appointments. But year after year for the last 13 years we have been pushing for that but nothing is in place,” Mr Beyanga explained.
He says that there have been disappointments with those concerned in showing the will to constitute the communications tribunal that would help to arbitrate on some of the violations done to media practitioners as witnessed during and after elections in early 2021.
Mr. Beyanga notes that there are many informal structures and commands that make negotiations for press freedom a challenge.
“They make a promise today, the following day things go back. We had an engagement with the UPDF after former CDF (Chief of Defence Forces) came out to apologise after several incidents (of violence against journalists) they made a commitment. We tried to have a working relationship of how we can support each other because it is one thing that gives birth to other issues.”
He added that; “In there you realise that you are speaking to the CDF but maybe there is another line where the instructions and commands are coming from within the UPDF other than the CDF. The things were not clear but we kept engaging, nevertheless. You engage with the UPDF but some of the crimes are committed by the SFC (Special Forces Command) and the SFC was not reporting to the CDF. It became a bit challenging in terms of protecting the journalists. We kept engaging and we are still engaging up to now.”
Mr. Beyanga said that the broken state system makes negotiations difficult because sometimes one does not know who else one needs to engage with so that the journalists who work in the field are safe.
The 2020 Press Freedom Index Report recommends among others that Uganda Human Rights Commission;
“Investigate all cases relating to violations of press freedoms especially those committed by the state and its agents. As part of this initiative, appropriate compensation should be provided to victims in deserving cases. Exercise the mandate bestowed on the Commission by the Constitution to defend and promote citizen journalism and internet freedom both of which are an evolving and important.”
In response, Ms Ssenkindi said the commission has noted the challenges including security and safety of journalists. “We have seen them being battered, harassed, vandalised, illegally detained. Media practitioners have cited political interference, intimidation, many fear persecution and of course they do not come out. There is denial of access to information and all these i have said stem from the state itself, private practitioners and the general public,” she said.
She said the states have an obligation to make government information available to the public for public scrutiny. She further added that when the public cannot access government information then it becomes a challenge to enforce accountability facilitated by independent and responsible media.
Uganda has over 310 radio stations, 40 television stations, mushrooming online media and a number of mainstream publications.
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