Kayihura 'so disturbed': New Vision editor charged

Vision Group's English weekend papers and investigations editor, Felix Osike, was on Tuesday charged with offensive communication over a story titled ‘Kayihura Security Beefed Up' which was published in the Saturday Vision of October 28.

Osike, who was accompanied by Vision Group lawyer Tony Kirabira, arrived at the Media Crimes Department at Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) headquarters in Kibuli at around 11:00am and was grilled for over two hours before recording a statement.

The interrogation team included Detective/Assistant Commissioner of Police Isaac Oketcho, the commissioner media crimes, Emmanuel Mbonimpa and Senior Superintendent of Police Mark Odongo, who is in charge of IGP's special assignments.

They demanded to know the basis for writing the story about the IGP and the source.

In his response, Osike said, "We wrote the story basing on a tip from reliable sources who witnessed the heightened security operations near the IGP's residence in Muyenga."

The interrogators repeatedly mentioned how unpleasant the IGP felt about the story and argued that it was written without verifiable evidence, but Osike maintained that all facts in the story were verified before publication.

Osike was also tasked with explaining the news production process from information gathering to publication. He explained the editorial processes stressing that no story is published without verification.

After a long winding interrogation spanning hours, Osike was charged with offensive communication and released on bond.

He was ordered to return to the CID headquarters on November 7. But in the summons, Police had stated that the story disturbed the peace and privacy of the IGP.

"The summonses have a chilling effect and are a curb on press freedom in the country. The Police needs to puts its house in order instead of intimidating journalists," Osike said after going through the grueling grilling by the CID officers.

In light of the latest summons, Vision Group Editor-In-Chief, Barbara Kaija has expressed her dismay at the manner in which the Police is handling the so-called ‘media crimes'; stating that such incessant summons are only intended to intimidate journalists from doing their work.

"We are law-abiding citizens who have to respect such summons when they come. We, therefore, could not refuse to appear before the Police when the IGP expressed displeasure about a story we wrote involving him.

When we get such stories, we try to be fair, accurate and do balanced reporting and the Police knows we have been their partners for a very long time," she said.

She added that if there ever is anything wrongly reported in the media, proper channels should be used to resolve the issues rather than actions that injure journalism.

"The media is a very important partner in development and, therefore, these continuous summons to editors are counterproductive.

The worst thing any nation would want is an intimidated media which cannot speak for the voiceless," she explained. Kaija said she expects that since Osike has heeded the summons, he should be treated with fairness. He has an address and he should be summoned when the Police is ready to proceed.

"One of our Bukedde editors is in a similar situation and on Police bond. He has been required to report to Police every week and this has affected his duties. We do not expect the same to happen in Osike's case.

"We are professional media practitioners and are always fair in our reporting," she emphasised. Kirabira decried the increase in such summons against journalists.

"This kind of information is protected under the Constitution," he said.

Besides Osike, a number of other journalists from other online media houses, including Stanley Ndawula of The Investigator were also grilled yesterday for several hours for various media offences.

The charges against the journalists had not established by press time.

Several media practitioners and civil society have come out to condemn such Police summons.

Veteran journalist and media trainer, John Baptist Wasswa on Monday said the summoning of editors is intended to intimidate journalists and that the

Police should use channels such as the Media Centre to counter stories the force deems inaccurate.

"These summons are unfortunate, and they are not good for democracy.

Even if a story is ‘false', you have to put it to the test; you have to counter the story by putting out your own facts, not by intimidating journalists," he observed.

Dr Livingstone Sewanyana, the founding executive director of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, says the summons is just another indictment on lackluster media freedom in Uganda.

"The media in this country is not free. The State deploys several tactics to derail the media such as the recent banning of live coverage of parliamentary proceedings, the summoning of editors, directives to media houses to run some stories or not to host certain people," he said.