Moral decay blamed on Red Pepper

By Maurice Okoreand Hillary Kiirya PASTOR Martin Sempa of Makerere Community Church yesterday told court that the Red pepper tabloid is an instrument of “moral terrorism” against families in Uganda.Ssempa, 34, who was testifying in a case against the tabloid staff was reacting to the testimony of Charles Oponya of Oponya and Company Advocates, who told court that he had stopped reading the Red Pepper because everytime he did his work would get disrupted due to sexual arousal.“The paper corrupts the public by promoting defilement, adultery, promiscuity and the spread of HIV/AIDS,” Ssempa said.He said the tabloid promoted defilement by carrying pictures of minors who were quoted in one of the issues as saying that they wanted boyfriends. He said the paper had also broken the Ugandan law by continuing to corrupt the morals of many citizens.“I advised Tusiime to stop publishing the evil pictures but he told me that he was also a pastor of a certain church which knew what he was doing,” he said.He said the Red Pepper had no news value. He said women in some of the issues of the tabloid who show off their buttocks were witches.“The paper’s intention is not to educate and inform the public about the wrongs that go on in society but to make more money,” Ssempa added. the editor-in-chief, Richard Tusiime, 29, the circulation manager, Martin Mpooya, 44 and the manager of the paper, James Mujuni, 29, are on trial for publishing, distributing and possessing obscene materials. They appeared in in court clad in Red Pepper T-shirts.