But media bosses choosemoney over workers’ safety
For Nickson Bbale, a reporter of Channel 44, a local TV station, being assaulted on the job came as a shock.
“I used to hear that up country journalists have been beaten and I could walk home from work and sleep,” he says, “But now it was me and other city journalists being assaulted.”
He was assaulted by a rowdy gang on Feb. 23 as he filmed the chaos at Kakeeka Polling Station in Rubaga, a Kampala suburb and sustained a deep cut to the head.
He was trying to stop his camera being grabbed when a young man hit him on the head with a stick the size of a baseball bat. With blood oozing freely from the gush on his head, he ran towards the lone policeman guarding the ballot boxes. But here, he met two female reporters being beaten by another gang. These were Jane Anyango of UBC TV and Florence Nabukeera of Bukedde.
“The policeman next to them had no gun but a small baton and all he could say was ‘these are journalists stop attacking them’. The gang became more ferocious and the policeman gave up saving them. It descended on them.
“The two ladies ran into a trench but the gang was not about to give up. With my bleeding head I moved towards the ladies and the gang asked for my phone and started checking my pockets,” he narrated.
Other journalists who were assaulted in the failed Kampala mayoral election on Feb 23, narrate a more or less the same ordeal as Bbale’s.
The attacks are orchestrated by hoodlums, affluent and so `untouchable’ members of society, and state agents.
Even for the Election Day attacks, prominent businessman and NRM top honcho Hassan Basajjabalaba assaulted Arthur Kintu, a New Vision photojournalist, who was taking Basajjabalaba’s pictures as he bribed NRM delegates to vote him as chairman of the party’s Entrepreneurs League. The assault case was reported to police but not much has been done to bring Basajjabalaba to book.
On Feb. 18, Julius Odeke, a photojournalist was shot in the ribs by a government soldier as he covered the parliamentary elections in Budadiri West, Sironko district. The soldier is yet to be arrested. Over 10 journalists are nursing wounds they sustained while covering the elections.
Journalists assaulted were mainly photographers, still and motion, for newspapers and television stations and those with recorders and reporting events live. “Events being reported usually involve people doing mischief which they fear to be exposed, so they attack journalists to stop them from covering the event,” says journalist Charles Odongtho.
Six journalists were assaulted at that station where Peter Sematimba, the ruling NRM candidate in the mayoral, voted from. The journalists were covering alleged ballot stuffing in the botched Kampala Mayoral elections.
Metro FM’s Christine Namatumba was struck with nail-bearing stick together with Lydia Nabaziwa of Bukedde TV, and Brian Nsimbe of Channel 44 TV.
The Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) issued a statement condemning the violence but most media houses have not come out publicly to condemn it.
“As journalists we need to come out to condemn these acts of hooliganism. It is infringing on our freedom as reporters and everyone should castigate it,” Bbale says.
Charles Odoobo Bichachi, one of the senior journalists and editors in the country, says the silence of media houses speaks volumes about the effect of commercialization on the media.
“It seems a contradiction that the media houses remain quiet as their journalists are being assaulted, instead merely reporting comments of foreign actors like the events happened in another country,” he said.
He was referring to media houses that regurgitate statements issued by international media freedom watchdogs like the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
Bichachi says while there is no straight answer to the ugly silence, he thinks “it is all about the commercialisation of the media.”
“Media houses no longer see themselves as having a responsibility to society; they see themselves as a business just like a bakery, fuel dealer, etc. They therefore cannot say anything that could potentially put their business in trouble. If their journalists are beaten by government’s goons, too bad.”
“There is also no serious professional association of journalists and media houses. In the past Uganda Newspaper Editors and Publishers Association (UNEPA) would have issued a stern statement and made demands to govt. Radio/TV stations are worse. They are owned by businessmen, most with links to NRM, so silence is best.”
Ssematimba, one of the prime suspects behind the attacks owns a radio station.
Joshua Kyalimpa, president of UJA, says this time the association is committed on to see those who assaulted journalists are punished by courts of law. “These people were doing their work and there was no need to attack them because this infringes on the freedom of the press as enshrined in the constitution,” said Kyalimpa. He says UJA has hired private investigators to supplement the police in investigating the cases.
“Journalists have a fundamental role to play in every democratic society, including scrutinising the process of choosing leaders during elections. Violent attacks on media in Uganda were not in keeping with the country’s Constitution and other international instruments that Uganda has signed and ratified,” Gabriel Baglo, Director of the IFJ Africa Office, said.
The police claims it arrested over 100 people suspected to have been involved in the chaos but none has been brought to courts of law. Instead it is the assaulted journalists who have been making trips to the police station to record statements and have themselves examined by the police surgeon. By Feb 25, Bbale who had been discharged from Mengo Hospital had been to CPS to record a statement and was referred to Saturday when he would see the police surgeon for re-examination.
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written by bwire job, March 09, 2011
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