Newspapers continue to jostle for news, copy sales and relevance in an era where social media is breaking the news in real time. In a bid to stay ahead of the game, tabloids like Kampala Sun have continued to rattle feathers in the corporate world with their malicious trend of stalking and witch hunting young corporates who make the news.
The latest in their damage scheme was Heineken Uganda’s Public Relations Lead Steven Baryevuga. Setting up pseudo whatsapp accounts and stalking the young fellow, Kampala Sun went ahead to disgracefully offer sex which the young man turned down and instead leaked the chats on a group which is mainly patronized by journalists who picked cue and broke the story before Kampala Sun maliciously turned it around to give the impression Baryevuga had been pranked.
This story is one in a series of other malicious stories that the Vision Group owned tabloid commission to pick readers. Weeks earlier the paper had been made to publically apologise to the Kyabazinga of Busoga after they alleged he was intimate with one of his platonic friends.
In the era of professionalism in the media and true, informative and educative reporting, one wonders why Kampala Sun would continue to disgrace itself and shoo away many of their reporters with unsubstantiated and untrue stories. Only time will tell if this mudslinging game can keep them afloat.
Joel who has been a victim of this unprofessional reporting has no kind words. He says “I have been a victim of untrue stories courtesy of that paper and truthfully I am disappointed in the uncivilized manner they continue to operate”.