This an editorial in today’s Sunday Monitor by Emmanuel Gyezaho, a former colleague and generally very nice guy, about the role of press freedom and how it relates to a weak opposition party.
In defense of press freedom
Agang of mean looking goons (read security operatives) besieged the premises of the new fortnightly, The Independent, arresting three journalists; celebrated critic Andrew Mwenda, the richly experienced Odobbo Bichachi and young turk John Njoroge over stories the trio published relating to alleged atrocities committed by the UPDF during the northern Uganda insurgency.
Daily Monitor photojournalist. Joseph Kiggundu, was dispatched to cover the story. Duty called and he dashed to Kanjokya Street in Kamwokya, a Kampala suburb, totally oblivious of what calamity lay ahead of him.
He gets to the news scene, armed with his camera, to capture these barbaric moments of a broad-daylight onslaught on the media. It was last weekend, ironically, seven days before the world marked the World Press Freedom Day. It fell yesterday.
Click, click, click, Mr Kiggundu went about his business. Moments later, the messenger got hunted. Blindfolded, camera whisked away, Mr Kiggundu, was detained, along with the trio of journalists, but later released by the police.
To many, it wasn’t such a shocker.
The consistency with which the State is prying into the affairs of journalists and increasingly restricting the space in which we can freely execute our jobs is well documented.
From upcountry radio journalists and commentators, to acclaimed investigative reporters in the heart of the country, the NRM regime has not shied away from enriching its account of brazen attacks on the Fourth Estate.
This episode offers us fresh evidence of a repressive government frightened by fear of what the truth may reveal.
For the reporters whose job it is to point out the flaws in government, the gross abuse of power by our political leadership, human rights violations, and offer a platform to the minority to speak out and be heard, our reward has been; intimidation, arrest, interrogation, detention and charges in court.
About three months ago, at a closed meeting of executive members of the Uganda Parliamentary Press Association, our vice president, Ms Julian Amutuhaire, an industrious reporter with KFM, who has defied masculine engineered odds to emerge as an excellent female journalist, mooted the idea of celebrating the World Press Freedom Day, by highlighting the plight of journalists in the country.
We discussed, at length and agreed it was necessary we petition Parliament making a strong demand for comprehensive media law reform.
That petition is now currently before the House and the onus is upon the legislature to protect the media as we stand for our all important values of truth and independence, fairness and balance, accuracy and integrity, and ensure we operate with all the freedom we deserve to ably keep a watchful eye on the government.
Journalists in Uganda are in such a predicament (as they are like world over). We have been attacked by the opposition for allegedly being under the armpit of the NRM whenever we write stories that praise the regime or criticise the opposition.
And when we report similarly about the regime, we are harassed. But more importantly, it is necessary to ask why reporters are now increasingly in the line of fire with the State.
It is understood that President Museveni no longer takes the opposition seriously. In retrospect, he never has besides the exception when Dr Kizza Besigye, an insider, broke all the rules of loyalty and gunned for his throne.
The opposition is weak enough not to launch any formidable threat on his grip onto power, apart from tickling him at the polls.
As a matter of fact, the opposition has been a blessing to Mr Museveni because they legitimise his undemocratic tendencies as they offer no real challenge, alternative or threat to his kleptocracy.
Filling that void has been independent media, of which the Monitor Publications Ltd has steered the cause. Holding the government to account by exposing its excesses and ineptitude, independent media has been at loggerheads with the State.
As we marshalled support and prepared for a peaceful walk in the city to highlight the plight of reporters in the country ahead of the World Press Freedom Day, a colleague said he was appalled by the conspicuous silence of the opposition.
It became very apparent that no condemnation of the recent attacks on the press had been issued. He said that if Dr Besigye, the Forum for Democratic Change leader, the Democratic Party, the Uganda Peoples Congress and whatever is left of an opposition, are unwilling to recognise that the attacks on independent press reduces the space of freedom of expression, and their space to be heard, they would only be fools.
The inherent freedom to speak openly, speak for the voiceless and demand for equitable rights is that which can only sustain the opposition. Without it, they are dead, buried.
And because you are weak, the government considers us the genuine opposition. The State has got a lot of ground to control and influence public opinion, so when it attacks the little left for alternative voices, the characters (in the opposition) who claim to be defenders of these rights, ought to stand up. Otherwise, they just become political opportunists.
We have rightly reported about the millions getting a lousy education through the Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education, but have you seen the opposition seriously mobilise around such a cause to marshal real support and demand for change or offer the alternative solution? No, and a big one.
We report almost daily about the pathetic state of our hospitals but the Besigyes (and Musevenis) will go for treatment abroad. When has the opposition crusaded for the rights of medical workers and made any headway? Don’t remember!
But until the State shuts down all avenues for us to openly say that Besigye’s ambition and that of Museveni is all but the same, to be president, we can boldly say that.
Let’s set the reporters free and remember what former United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) said: “Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged.”
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