Police was captured as the lead violator of journalist rights in the recently released 2021 Human Rights Network for Journalists (HRNJ) report. The other perpetrators were UPDF, RDCs, SFC, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), CAOs and other members of the community.

Eighty-two cases of the recorded 131 violations were against the Police. 

Dr Sylvia Namubiru from the Legal Aid Service Providers Network (LASPNET) urged journalists to take action decisively against the perpetrators. She said the media must ask hard questions to the Police leadership with the option of boycotting the force’s activities.  

“Ask questions: ‘If I am going to report on Police press briefings, what stops me from reporting when you are stopping a demonstration or gathering? What creates the distinction that I should be in this press conference, but I cannot be in another? If you don’t want our group to be out there then we should also stop coming here so that we are balanced?’” she said. 

Citing the example of the football match that the UPDF organized after journalists were injured in Kampala attacks at the UN offices, Namubiru said the negotiators at the time should have demanded definite answers given the current risks and threats against their colleagues.  

John Baptist Wasswa, a former editor of New Vision and Daily Monitor, is shocked at the level of brutality against members of the fourth estate. He says the times have changed for worse.

ohn Baptist Wasswa, former editor of New Vision and Daily Monitor

“In the early days of the New Vision, the editors asked the President: ‘What are the ground rules? What will put us in trouble and what wouldn’t’. And the President told New Vision that if it is true, you will never get in trouble however painful it is. And for as long as I have known the President, if it is true, and he is annoyed, he picks a pen and writes to the editor, but he will not send troops to beat journalists. That was the working arrangement,” he said. 

Wasswa said when the NRM government came to power in 1986, it fully appreciated the role of the media in the advancement of the country. 

“I interviewed the late Abu Mayanja (information minister at the time New Vision started) when I was doing my Masters. He told me that the reason New Vision was founded and given that name is that the revolutionaries of NRM believed in the power of the media to change Uganda at a time when institutions were weak. The Judiciary was weak, the Police was weak and the army was new. They believed in the power of the media through exposure,” he said.  

He, however, decried the ever-diminishing goodwill towards media. 

Dr Namubiru and Wasswa were sharing insights during a panel discussion on press freedom in Uganda, exploring the bottlenecks and prospects at the launch of the HRNJ report. 

Lawyer Namubiru argued that the conducive space to exercise the profession is under threat. 

Dr Sylvia Namubiru from the Legal Aid Service Providers Network (LASPNET)

“I want us to appreciate that the challenges and risks journalists or media are facing right now are not different from any other Ugandans or practitioners. In civil society, we have been talking about a shrinking space but at this juncture, we are talking about closed. So, you look at the operating environment and what it was before and the laws that were enabling some have since changed, others have been enacted, we have some archaic laws like the Public Order Management Act that cannot allow peaceful assemblies,” she said. 

She called for journalists to unite and take a stand against abuses of their media freedom. 

“But this cannot come when we are disjointed when we are not speaking the same voice when we are not in charge of the media houses. For example, if you say let’s do some kind of boycotting, your boss will tell you to go and face the risk. And when you say let us go to court as a group, some of you will say: “Let me get the compensation.” she said. 

Andrew Irumba Katusabe, the president of the online journalists’ association, expressed disappointment at the lack of cohesion among the scribes. He wondered how the motorcycle riders (bodaboda) manage to stand up for one another when their colleagues are in right or wrong, but journalists can't.

"Why are bodabodas united? They unite to defend their space. The issue is about how organised we are to defend our rights. How many journalists are here to cover their own function compared to how many we are in the country. If there was another function for a certain politician, there would be more journalists there than here. We need to learn to be together - let us be part of our associations," he said.

Namubiru challenged the journalists to start small on uniting.

 "It is about the whole profession no matter colours, no matter the media station or levels: so, those who are brands, upcoming and mid-level should be seen to be speaking the same voice if one of you is injured. When one of your colleague's court cases comes up for hearing in court, are you there? You can even put on your media jackets just to sit in the courtroom to make a point to the judicial officer presiding that you have a vested interest in the matter. It is touching all of us and it shouldn't continue.

Namubiru said if the case is at the negotiation level, she would like to see that even when there is a press conference called by another institution of government, journalists put it on hold to resolve a colleague's issue. "That way, other people will feel your impact and importance. But the moment you begin to move in different directions, then it becomes very hard to see you as one voice," she said.

Dr Namubiru underscored the importance of free media. “The public depends on you to know what is happening here and abroad, to know what is changing. To know issues of governance and accountability. If you don't tell us, we shall not know. If you reserve the information, we shall remain in the darkness. So, recognize that niche you have and use it to your advantage,” she said.