Journalists should be assessed - EALA Speaker

By Clare Muhindo & Ramadhan Abbey

KAMPALA - The Speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) Daniel Fred Daniel Kidega has asked media owners to continuously assess the performance of journalists, in order to eliminate masqueraders from the profession.

Speaking at the media freedom breakfast at Imperial Royale Hotel on Wednesday, Kidega said that with the increasing number of radio and television stations in the country, it is hard to identify a genuine journalist.

“These days everyone with a recorder claims they are journalists and some lie about their stations. These masqueraders are tarnishing the profession and we need to eliminate them,” he said.

Kidega also cautioned journalists on accuracy, saying that they sometimes misinterpret the information that they gather at events.  

“The development of a country is dependent on the quality of journalists, because they are the fourth estate and bridge the gap between the government and the public."

Conversely, he urged journalists to observe their code of ethics and ensure that they promote professionalism.

The regional parliement Speaker was responding to media activists who said that many journalists are continuously harassed by law enforcers.

During the discussion, Haruna Kanaabi, the   Coordinator for Eastern African Media Institute –Uganda Chapter (EAMI-U) said that activists still face a challenge in the protection of media freedom, because of the commercialization of the media.

He noted that, a one hour programme on a radio station in Kampala costs approximately sh3.5m, and over sh7m on a television station.

“These charges are quite hard for us to meet, yet we need to fight for media freedom. We only wish it was little subsidized for media freedom activists."