MPs, academia decry poor remuneration for journalists

By Moses Mulondo & Betty Amamukirori

Members of Parliament on the Parliamentary Forum on Media have decried the poor remuneration for journalists, which they said compromises many of them to adhere to the ethical values of the profession.

During a dialogue at Imperial Royale Hotel dubbed ‘the media we want’, the MPs, media academia and journalists urged various stakeholders including media managers, government and parliament to intervene on poor remuneration for journalists.

“As Members of Parliament, we want a united media fraternity that is professional and well paid to play a pivotal role in nation building. It pains us that most media houses are poorly paying journalists,” said Butambala woman MP Mariam Nalubega, who is also the chairperson of Parliamentary Forum on Media.

Nalubega said they have held similar dialogues in different parts of the country and would in August after bringing together all the concerns and aspirations of journalists launch a media manifesto. 

Kole woman MP, Ruth Acheng said, “As parliament, we shall do whatever it takes to ensure that exploitation of journalists by media managers stops. When you poorly pay journalists, you lead into temptations of unprofessional conduct.”

Luuka MP, John Bagole said, “The biggest threat to journalism is unprofessional conduct. There are many people who just came from nowhere and meandered into journalism.  As a forum, we are working on a private members Bill to address the loopholes in the media including poor remuneration and unprofessionalism.”

In her presentation of views from regional media dialogues, Media scholar Lynn Najjemba, the acting executive director at Panos Eastern Africa, said journalists need to reorganize themselves and have a united voice for their concerns and aspirations.

Talking about objectivity and the independence of the media, Najjemba said, “Journalists told us we want to be fair and accord equal platform to all players in the political process but are incapacitated by the decisions of our media owners and managers.”

Mama FM radio manager, Margret Ssentamu said, “I agree that journalists earn little but before agitating for a salary increase please learn to add value to yourself. How will you ask for a salary increment when you do not have any qualifications as a journalist. We need people who add value to our businesses.”

Dr. William Tayeebwa, the head of Makerere University Journalism and communications department, said, “The reason why our media is operated by unqualified and unskilled journalists is because the salary is too meager. There is no way you can convince a university graduate to join the journalism field or work for you when you are going to pay them peanuts. This is the reason as to why most of these trained journalists opt for public relations.”

Elaborating the concern further, Dr. Tayebwa said, “There is no way we can ask a journalist to desist from receiving brown envelopes when you are paying them peanuts. In fact I support those journalists who collect tips (brown envelopes) in the course of executing their duties.  This is a common practice in the western countries.” 

Richard Kirembe from TOP TV said, “Independent media houses have turned us into beggars. They give you appointment letters, you work for them but at the end of the month you have to beg for the salary. So in most cases you accept whatever amount they throw at you since you have responsibilities to take care of.”

Robert Ssempala from Human Rights Network for Journalists said: “The major problem affecting the performance of our journalists is the poor conducive environment. The journalists work so hard yet they are paid little and there is no security provided to protect them. This has made so many of them become unprofessional because they need to survive. My prayer is that we should create a mechanism to ensure that there is an improvement in the working environment.”

As one of the resolutions, the gathering resolved on the need to work towards a strong media union and a credible all-embracing journalists association to push for the concerns and aspirations of the media fraternity.


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