New York, February 3, 2010—An opinion column in
Uganda’s leading independent newspaper suggesting parallels between President
Yoweri Museveni and
former Philippine leader
Ferdinand
Marcos led to criminal libel charges against two journalists
today, according to
local
media reports.
A magistrate in the
capital,
Kampala,
charged Angelo Izama, a senior reporter, and Henry Ochieng, editor of
the
Sunday Monitor news magazine,
based on a complaint from Museveni, who claims he was defamed in a
December
19 column, Monitor Publications lawyer Anne Abeja Muhwezi told CPJ.
Izama’s column,
quoting opposition figures and academics, largely discusses the risk of
political violence
during next year’s general elections. But the complaint focuses on a portion of
the piece that draws similarities between Museveni’s
Uganda and the Phillipines under
Marcos, according to CPJ research. Museveni, who took power in Uganda a few
months before Philippine protests
ousted
Marcos in 1986, is expected to seek a fourth term in next year’s general
elections.
Izama
and Ochieng were released on bail of 100,000 Ugandan shillings (US$50) pending
trial on February 25, according to Muhwezi. Criminal libel is one of several
Ugandan penal code statutes, including
sedition and the promotion
of sectarianism, whose constitutional basis is
under
review by the country’s highest court. Ugandan courts have typically
postponed action in such cases while the Supreme Court case is pending.
“If anything proves that a government is authoritarian, it’s
jailing journalists who raise questions about the government,” said CPJ Africa
Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “It’s
regrettable that the magistrate charged Angelo Izama and Henry Ochieng with
criminal libel. It’s time for Uganda
to join the ranks of democracies by eliminating criminal defamation statutes.”
Izama told CPJ he was first interrogated about the column on
December 22 and was subsequently told to report to the police “media crimes”
division at least once a week. Ochieng was first summoned on January 11. Both
journalists spent two hours at the media crimes division today before being
driven to court in a police vehicle, Muhwezi said.
Izama and Ochieng are among several Monitor journalists
facing
criminal charges in connection with their coverage, according to CPJ
research. Sedition charges also hang over radio journalists Robert Kalundi
Sserumaga and Betty Nambooze, while a government ban remains on popular debate
programs and Central Broadcasting Services, the station of the traditional
kingdom of the Baganda,
Uganda’s largest ethnic group, since last September.
Twitter
Facebook
Email Lists
Donate
Print
Share
Delicious
Digg
Google
Reddit
StumbleUpon
