Four times in a row, Uganda Police Force (UPF) has been named the most violator of journalists’ rights and freedom according to the Press Freedom Index Report (2016) released by the Human Rights Network for Journalists Uganda (HRNJ-U).
Launched on Tuesday in Kampala, HRNJ National Coordinator, Robert Sempala noted that the index took stock of the time when Uganda held its presidential, Parliamentary and Local Council elections, during which a number of violations against journalists were registered.
The media has recently been stopped from covering the Omusinga wa Rwenzururu Court proceedings, publishing reports on the assassination of AIGP Felix Kaweesi, the kidnapping of an NTV Journalist and threats of kidnap to The Investigator website CEO.
“For the fourth year running, the Police Force has topped the list of offenders with 83 cases out of a total of 135 recorded throughout the year; accounting for 61 percent,” said Sempala.
Sempala said media employers have also accounted for 6 percent of the cases of violations, most of which have largely manifested in the rural radio stations, where proprietors care primarily about profit and less about reporters’ welfare.
But Kampala Metropolitan Police (KMP) spokesman Emilian Kayima, said the force has on a number of occasions been wrongly accused of rights violations.
“We have the notion of the presumption of innocent until proved guilty; but for every case that we have handled, we have been rendered guilty. Even when we invite a journalist to record a statement, that is also taken as another case of violation,” he said.