Yes, Winnie Byanyima now seems to be more focused!
Oct 15, 2006
SIR — I listened to former Mbarara MP Winnie Byanyima discussing a wide range of issues with a panel of journalists on KFM show. I admit she has evolved into a real international figure.
SIR — I listened to former Mbarara MP Winnie Byanyima discussing a wide range of issues with a panel of journalists on KFM show. I admit she has evolved into a real international figure. Yes, she sounded not as the FDC die-hard we all knew but rather a woman with a dream to transform Uganda.
I agree with her when she says that our media is losing a bit of development focus by running political headlines day in, day out. This is something I think must change and this is something that President Museveni is not happy about. It is very unfortunate that our media from time immemorial has decided to sheepishly follow the notion of “when a dog bites a man, that’s not news, but when a man bites a dog, that’s newsâ€. In the end, many things happening in the country go unnoticed or are simply given a negative connotation simply to make news out of them. We must always ask ourselves before running a headline what the ordinary man will benefit from such news. On Friday, for example, the headline was “Otti vows to kill Icc captorsâ€. This is laughable. How can a malnourished Otti counter the powers of the ICC? Byanyima laboured throughout the show to convince the panel of journalists to re-focus their discussions away from politics and talk a bit about development but to no avail. The young men vehemently refused to listen to her advice insisting that everything in this life revolves around politics. That is wrong. Politicians have developed tricks of fooling journalists to the extent that when Kahinda Otafiire sleeps in Parliament, he receives coverage, when Henry Kajura sleeps in cabinet, he receives coverage and when MP Otto takes flowers to Nankabirwa, he makes headlines. How about going to their constituencies and assessing their perfomance?
Deo Tumusiime Kabwende Kampala
I agree with her when she says that our media is losing a bit of development focus by running political headlines day in, day out. This is something I think must change and this is something that President Museveni is not happy about. It is very unfortunate that our media from time immemorial has decided to sheepishly follow the notion of “when a dog bites a man, that’s not news, but when a man bites a dog, that’s newsâ€. In the end, many things happening in the country go unnoticed or are simply given a negative connotation simply to make news out of them. We must always ask ourselves before running a headline what the ordinary man will benefit from such news. On Friday, for example, the headline was “Otti vows to kill Icc captorsâ€. This is laughable. How can a malnourished Otti counter the powers of the ICC? Byanyima laboured throughout the show to convince the panel of journalists to re-focus their discussions away from politics and talk a bit about development but to no avail. The young men vehemently refused to listen to her advice insisting that everything in this life revolves around politics. That is wrong. Politicians have developed tricks of fooling journalists to the extent that when Kahinda Otafiire sleeps in Parliament, he receives coverage, when Henry Kajura sleeps in cabinet, he receives coverage and when MP Otto takes flowers to Nankabirwa, he makes headlines. How about going to their constituencies and assessing their perfomance?
Deo Tumusiime Kabwende Kampala