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Uganda second worst country for journalists

Journalists are among the country’s worst-paid professionals

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda is the second worst country to be a journalist in the East African region, according to the latest 2022 edition of the World Press Freedom Index published on World Press Freedom Day May 03.

The World Press Freedom Index assesses the state of journalism in 180 countries and territories. The worst country to be a journalist in the EA is Rwanda.

Compared to last year, Uganda has dropped seven places on the Index, which is published by the Paris-based NGO, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) that works to safeguard the right to freedom of information. Last year Uganda was at number 125 out of 180 countries and territories surveyed. This year Uganda down to number 132 out of 180. The higher the rank the worse the performance is.

“Kidnapping, violence, illegal confinement, arrest, confiscation of equipment – these are some of the consequences that journalists face if they criticise the regime,” says the Index fact-file on Uganda.

It adds: “Journalists are among the country’s worst-paid professionals. Work contracts are rare, and only a few reporters make more than US$200 (Approx. Shs700,000) a month. Their financial insecurity makes them susceptible to corruption”.

Burundi and South Sudan which ranked worse than Uganda last year have registered improvements and have been ranked better than Uganda.

Uganda is also the only EA country to post a worse ranking on the Index this year compared to last year.  This means that, according to the research, working conditions for journalists have got better in all EA countries except Uganda.

War-troubled South Sudan moved from number 139 to 128, Burundi from 147 to 107, Tanzania from 124 to 123, and Rwanda from 156 to 136. Eastern neighbour Kenya is best ranked at number 69 from 102 last year.

In good news for the continent, Eritrea is the only African country among the 10 worst countries for press freedom around the world. It is ranked number 179, just behind the worst ranked North Korea. These are closely followed by Iran, Turkmenistan, Myanmar, China, Vietnam, Cuba, Iraq, Syria, and Palestine.

The twelve worst countries on press freedom in Africa are Eritrea (179), Egypt (168), Djibouti (164), Sudan (151), Libya (143), Equatorial Guinea (141), Somalia (140), Zimbabwe (137), Rwanda (136), Western Sahara (135), Algeria (134) and Uganda (132).

The five best ranked countries are Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, and Finland. The U.S. is at number 44, UK (24), France (26), and Germany (16).

New ranking

To reflect the complexity of the ranking, RSF says the Index now assesses countries and territories on five new indicators: the political context, legal framework, economic context, sociocultural context, and security.

It defines press freedom as “the effective possibility for journalists, as individuals and as groups, to select, produce and disseminate news and information in the public interest, independently from political, economic, legal and social interference, and without threats to their physical and mental safety.”

Uganda is worst on the security, political, and social indicators.

The indicators are assessed on the basis of a quantitative survey of press freedom violations and abuses against journalists and media, and a qualitative study based on the responses of hundreds of press freedom experts selected by RSF (journalists, academics and human rights defenders).

The index’s fact file on Uganda notes that journalists in the country face intimidation and violence on a nearly daily basis.

“They are regularly targeted by the security services, the leading perpetrators of attacks against journalists,” it says.

It describes how more than 200 radio stations and some 30 television networks are operating in the country with many of them belonging to members or supporters of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), the ruling party.

“There are numerous state-owned media outlets, influential and loyal to Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the country since 1986,” the report says, “Some privately owned media do produce quality content, such as those owned by the Nation Media Group: KFM, Dembe FM, NTV, NBS and The East African, a weekly that sets a standard for journalism in the region.”

It says President Museveni does not tolerate criticism and regularly indulges in hateful commentary against the press.  In points at how the President threatened in 2021 to force the Daily Monitor, the country’s major daily, into bankruptcy and how, in 2018, he called journalists “parasites”.

The fact-file says Museveni’s re-election to a sixth term in 2021 followed an especially repressive electoral campaign, with more than 40 attacks against media organisations and journalists. Officials resorted to censorship – an internet blackout – and disinformation, accusing some journalists of being CIA agents.

The surveillance of reporters was heightened by the June 2017 creation of a unit of security officers and high-tech experts assigned, among other tasks, to monitor journalists’ social network posts.

Authorities routinely interfere directly with the broadcasts of some TV reports, demanding that they be cut from programmes. And in 2019, police raided three private radio stations to cut short interviews with an opposition politician. It notes that the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), the agency which regulates the media, is directly controlled by the government.

It says several media outlets belong to religious groups, some of which are aligned with the government, such as the Pentecostal movement, very influential in the country, which includes the president’s wife and daughter in its ranks.

“The Constitution guarantees freedom of the press, but in practice the media are hindered by a series of laws, including those on fraudulent digital activity, anti-terrorism and public order,” the report says.

It points out that in 2021, the constitutional court rejected appeals by journalist associations against draconian legal provisions against the media.

“A law on access to information does exist, but journalists face a number of obstacles, and pressure for self-censorship, when they seek information of public interest,” it says.

World Press Freedom Day

This year’s World Press Freedom Day was marked under the theme of `Journalism under digital siege’.

According to the official United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) communiqué, the theme sought to “spotlight the multiple ways in which journalism is endangered by surveillance and digitally-mediated attacks on journalists, and the consequences of all this on public trust in digital communications”.

“There is a growing global push encouraging more transparency regarding how Internet companies exploit citizens’ data; how that data informs predictive models and artificial intelligence, and enables amplification of disinformation and hatred,” the communiqué said.

UNESCO said May 03 acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom and is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics.

It adds: “Just as importantly, World Press Freedom Day is a day of support for media which are targets for the restraint, or abolition, of press freedom. It is also a day of remembrance for those journalists who lost their lives in the pursuit of a story”.

In the latest attacks by security forces on the media in Uganda, soldiers on March 10 raided the offices of Alternative DIGITALK TV, an online television station, on Lukuli Road in Makindye; a Kampala city suburb.  Nine members of the station staff were arrested.

On the same day, a group of people in civilian clothes but suspected to be security operatives spent at least three hours on the premises of Uganda’s biggest media house, the government-owned New Vision Group on 3rd Street in Kampala. They reportedly were hunting for a reporter who covered a protest staged by torture victims at the residence of the Speaker of Parliament Anita Among residence in Kololo, a Kampala suburb. The reporter was reportedly assaulted by security officers and his camera and laptop destroyed. But the security operatives continued to pursue and threaten him.

Alternative Digitalk TV Executive Director Norman Tumuhimbise and TV host Faridah Bikobere were charged with offensive communication and cyber stalking directed against President Yoweri Museveni. They were released on bail after a week in jail.

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