<I>Monitor</I> shut as police probes
Oct 11, 2002
The next issue of The Monitor may not come out this week.<br>Managing editor Charles Onyango Obbo told Capital FM radio in Kampala yesterday, “It is just a build up... I don’t think the paper is going to come out for the rest of the week. That is the
By Felix Osike
and Geoffrey Kamali
The next issue of The Monitor may not come out this week.
Managing editor Charles Onyango Obbo told Capital FM radio in Kampala yesterday, “It is just a build up... I don’t think the paper is going to come out for the rest of the week. That is the first step in shutting down the paper.â€
However, the editors met yesterday to discuss ways to print the paper elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the Police said last evening the paper’s offices would be out of bounds to staff until investigations were complete.
They did not say how long this would be. They besieged the paper’s premises for the second day yesterday as detectives and security operatives continued to search for evidence of a story that was published in the Wednesday edition.
The story said a UPDF helicopter gunship had crashed at Atto Hills in Pader district in combat against LRA rebels.
“As soon as we get what we want, we will get out,†Police spokesman Asuman Mugenyi said. “We don’t want to rush. We have to be systematic,†he added.
The story said the gunship could have been shot down by the rebels.
The army, however, said the story was false and challenged the paper to produce evidence.
In Thursday’s operation at the paper’s headquarters at Namwongo, Industrial area, several documents were seized and mobile phones confiscated. In a statement yesterday, the Police said they were investigating The Monitor publications “over publication of false news and broadcast of information prejudicial to national security.â€
In Gulu, security officers yesterday arrested Frank Nyakairu, The Monitor staff who filed the report from Mina hotel where he had gone to have breakfast with a photojournalist, Bruno Birakwate.
Mugenyi said the Police moved into The Monitor offices to search for security information in accordance with the Press and the Journalists Statute, 1995, the Police Statute,1994 and the Penal Code Act.
Information minister Basoga Nsadhu in a statement urged the Police “to expedite investigations to bring this matter to its logical conclusion.â€
He said the police would use The Monitor equipment to extract information necessary for their investigations.
He said the paper on a number of occasions, had reported non-existent ambushes, giving the impression that their reporters and editors were privy to LRA attacks before they occurred.
Basoga reminded the media of their duty of safeguarding national security and stability through adherence to professional ethics and code of conduct.
He called for factual, accurate, balanced and impartial reporting.
Basoga’s statement came after a marathon meeting at the ministry’s boardroom.
The move on The Monitor has sparked off angry reactions from journalists who have appealed to the Government to let The Monitor operate. The Uganda Journalists Association, in a letter to President Yoweri Museveni, condemned the Government action. “The shutdown of The Monitor is a terrible blow to the media industry and freedom of the press,†said the letter signed by UJA general secretary Haruna Kanabi
Sources yesterday said the Nation Group chief executive officer, Wilfred Kiboro and managing editor Wangethi Mwangi, called State House from Nairobi, seeking to meet Museveni over the matter.
But State House sources said they were not cleared by press time.
CID director Elizabeth Kutesa, referring to The Monitor said the investigations would involve taking statements from the paper’s employees.
Some detectives stayed at The Monitor FM radio on Crown House and the marketing office on Nkrumah Road where they kept watch over the employees.
Armed Police officers at the paper’s head office in Namuwongo, a city suburb, warned reporters and other company employees to stay at least 50 metres away. “There should be no loitering around here until we accomplish our work with the owners,†Ahmed Wafuba, the regional Police commander, Kampala, warned.
Earlier, the detectives ransacked the offices and carried away at least 12 computer central processing units (CPUs), including the computer server. All employees were eventually allowed to leave at about 12.53am.
A security source said the police had began analysing data gathered from the paper’s offices.
Army spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza said The Monitor owed UPDF an explanation.
“Definitely they owe us an explanation for publishing a false story and for deliberately refusing to include my comments which would have been the version of the army.â€
He said despite his assurances that the story was not true, The Monitor went ahead and published it.
The Police chief, Maj. Gen Wamala Katumba, declined to comment on the matter yesterday.
“I will not talk to you about it. It is a media house and it is minister Basoga who is responsible for that,†Katumba said. UJA said if the Government believed the story was false, it could have taken other options and called for frank discussion between the editors and the President on the coverage of the war in the north.
“We believe anti-press elements in the Government and the military are trying to exploit the war coverage to crack-down on the freedom of the press,†the letter added.
and Geoffrey Kamali
The next issue of The Monitor may not come out this week.
Managing editor Charles Onyango Obbo told Capital FM radio in Kampala yesterday, “It is just a build up... I don’t think the paper is going to come out for the rest of the week. That is the first step in shutting down the paper.â€
However, the editors met yesterday to discuss ways to print the paper elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the Police said last evening the paper’s offices would be out of bounds to staff until investigations were complete.
They did not say how long this would be. They besieged the paper’s premises for the second day yesterday as detectives and security operatives continued to search for evidence of a story that was published in the Wednesday edition.
The story said a UPDF helicopter gunship had crashed at Atto Hills in Pader district in combat against LRA rebels.
“As soon as we get what we want, we will get out,†Police spokesman Asuman Mugenyi said. “We don’t want to rush. We have to be systematic,†he added.
The story said the gunship could have been shot down by the rebels.
The army, however, said the story was false and challenged the paper to produce evidence.
In Thursday’s operation at the paper’s headquarters at Namwongo, Industrial area, several documents were seized and mobile phones confiscated. In a statement yesterday, the Police said they were investigating The Monitor publications “over publication of false news and broadcast of information prejudicial to national security.â€
In Gulu, security officers yesterday arrested Frank Nyakairu, The Monitor staff who filed the report from Mina hotel where he had gone to have breakfast with a photojournalist, Bruno Birakwate.
Mugenyi said the Police moved into The Monitor offices to search for security information in accordance with the Press and the Journalists Statute, 1995, the Police Statute,1994 and the Penal Code Act.
Information minister Basoga Nsadhu in a statement urged the Police “to expedite investigations to bring this matter to its logical conclusion.â€
He said the police would use The Monitor equipment to extract information necessary for their investigations.
He said the paper on a number of occasions, had reported non-existent ambushes, giving the impression that their reporters and editors were privy to LRA attacks before they occurred.
Basoga reminded the media of their duty of safeguarding national security and stability through adherence to professional ethics and code of conduct.
He called for factual, accurate, balanced and impartial reporting.
Basoga’s statement came after a marathon meeting at the ministry’s boardroom.
The move on The Monitor has sparked off angry reactions from journalists who have appealed to the Government to let The Monitor operate. The Uganda Journalists Association, in a letter to President Yoweri Museveni, condemned the Government action. “The shutdown of The Monitor is a terrible blow to the media industry and freedom of the press,†said the letter signed by UJA general secretary Haruna Kanabi
Sources yesterday said the Nation Group chief executive officer, Wilfred Kiboro and managing editor Wangethi Mwangi, called State House from Nairobi, seeking to meet Museveni over the matter.
But State House sources said they were not cleared by press time.
CID director Elizabeth Kutesa, referring to The Monitor said the investigations would involve taking statements from the paper’s employees.
Some detectives stayed at The Monitor FM radio on Crown House and the marketing office on Nkrumah Road where they kept watch over the employees.
Armed Police officers at the paper’s head office in Namuwongo, a city suburb, warned reporters and other company employees to stay at least 50 metres away. “There should be no loitering around here until we accomplish our work with the owners,†Ahmed Wafuba, the regional Police commander, Kampala, warned.
Earlier, the detectives ransacked the offices and carried away at least 12 computer central processing units (CPUs), including the computer server. All employees were eventually allowed to leave at about 12.53am.
A security source said the police had began analysing data gathered from the paper’s offices.
Army spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza said The Monitor owed UPDF an explanation.
“Definitely they owe us an explanation for publishing a false story and for deliberately refusing to include my comments which would have been the version of the army.â€
He said despite his assurances that the story was not true, The Monitor went ahead and published it.
The Police chief, Maj. Gen Wamala Katumba, declined to comment on the matter yesterday.
“I will not talk to you about it. It is a media house and it is minister Basoga who is responsible for that,†Katumba said. UJA said if the Government believed the story was false, it could have taken other options and called for frank discussion between the editors and the President on the coverage of the war in the north.
“We believe anti-press elements in the Government and the military are trying to exploit the war coverage to crack-down on the freedom of the press,†the letter added.