Cruelty against journalists recurred when Uganda Police raided the Pepper Publications Group on Tuesday, arrested before preferring treason charges against five directors and three editors of the country’s leading tabloid.
The group was arrested on Tuesday evening following the publication of a story titled “M7 plotting to overthrow Kagame – Rwanda” on November 20, 2017.
In solidarity, the Uganda Online Media Publishers Association (OMPA) has in the “strongest terms possible” condemned the siege and brutality on journalists.
The OMPA President Giles Muhame, asked Uganda Police Force to identify and hand over to the police, the individuals who carried the attack, saying it was a criminal act in which the security agency must demonstrate its commitment to the rule of law.
Mr. Muhame, who also doubles up as managing editor of Chimpreports, issued a warning that the online news association would advise all media houses not to deploy reporters to Police events, if action is not taken against the culprits and the siege on The Red Pepper premises be lifted and the business be allowed to resume.
BRUTALITY
“We wish to protest strongly, this continued inhuman and degrading treatment such as arbitrary deprivation of property and unlawful arrests that sometimes include instances of charges under laws that courts have declared to be inconsistent with the Constitution. There are increasing reports of journalists being denied access to news scenes and their equipment being confiscated, damaged or destroyed by state agencies that should ordinarily be protecting us,” Mr. Muhame said in a statement.
Besides treason charges against Arinaitwe Rugyendo (CMO), Patrick Mugumya (COO), Johnson Musinguzi (CFO), Richard Tusiime (CEO) and James Mujuni (CCO), and editors; Ben Byarabaha (Managing Editor), Richard Kintu (News Editor) and Francis Tumusiime (also News Editor), the other charges preferred against them are; offensive communication and disturbing the peace of President Yoweri Museveni, security minister Henry Tumukunde and Gen. Salim Saleh.
ACTION
Mr Muhame argued that the attack on journalists is part of a growing culture of intolerance, political and ethnic profiling of journalists in the country.
“Given that our colleagues have already been detained beyond the constitutional 48 hours, OMPA would like to demand that; Our colleagues be brought to competent courts of law and charged accordingly; They be granted immediate access to their families and loved ones; The siege on The Red Pepper premises be lifted and the business be allowed to resume; That police ceases the persistent mistreatment of journalists all over the country and that those who violate rights of journalists be brought to book; Additionally, those implicated in previous cases of torturing journalists be appropriately punished.”
“Should our colleagues not be brought to court today, OMPA will declare a ban on coverage of all police activities and events for a period of 2 months.”
“We also wish to call upon all other media houses to join this ban as we fight for and defend our right to freedom of expression and the safety of all journalists in Uganda; an attack on one, is an attack on all of us.”
