The Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga has expressed disappointment over the absence of ‘serious’ convictions for human rights violations against journalists.
Speaking at the World Press Freedom Day celebrations at Kampala Railway Gardens where Ugandan journalists converged to join the rest of the world to mark the day under the theme ‘Keeping Power in Check: Media, Justice and The Rule of Law’, Kadaga wondered whether journalists who fall victims have the capacity to run through the full costs of the trial after reporting violence cases.
She suggested a fund to support journalists who are pursuing cases of human rights violations in the country, noting that this may come in handy to provide a chance to enable abused journalists get justice.
The event was organized by the Uganda Human Rights Commission, African Center for Media Excellence (ACME), Uganda Media Women Association (UMWA) and Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) among other organizations.
For the past years, several reports especially the Press Freedom Index Report by the Human Rights Network for Journalists –Uganda (HRNJ-U) and that of Uganda Human Rights Commission have named Police as the number one violator of media practitioners.
The HRNJ-U recently released report for 2017 indicated 113 violations against journalists involving both State and non-state actors.
Speaker Kadaga who applauded the media for always informing the public and exposing issues like Torture in Police Cells promised to meet the Information Minister Frank Tumwebaze with a view of identifying areas of difficult in media operations so as to find solutions.
This was after the Danish Ambassador to Uganda Mogens Pedersen described as restrictive and controlling some of the draft ‘Communication Regulations’ which are underway from Uganda Communications Commission (UCC).
Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Uganda Media center Ofwono Opondo described as unfortunate incidences of violence against some journalists, closure of media houses and other ways of curtailing media freedom.
