Uganda

Last week in Uganda, authorities reacted to violent anti-government demonstrations, at left, by yanking at least four radio stations off the air and banning political programming and some journalists from the airwaves.  I have been covering the Ugandan blogosphere for Global Voices for more than two years. News of the violence first reached me on Thursday afternoon, not through the BBC or The New York Times, but on Twitter. It came in seven words, sent via SMS to the micro-blogging service by my friend Solomon King, a Web developer in the capital, Kampala: “Okay. We're like running for our lives.” 

New York, September 11, 2009—The government-run Uganda Broadcasting Council effectively shut down four radio stations today and Thursday, and ordered all radio stations to halt political debate programming in the wake of violent clashes in the capital, Kampala. 

New York, August 28, 2009--A Ugandan newspaper's critical caricature of President Yoweri Museveni led police to interrogate three journalists today on allegations of sedition, according to a defense attorney and local journalists. 

New York, August 25, 2009--Four journalists from Uganda's largest independent newspaper are facing criminal prosecutions, joining four others already charged since 2007, according to local journalists and news reports.

President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda lashed out at private broadcasters last week, accusing them of unethical reporting. The comments come in the midst of two important, ongoing developments: mounting public criticism of Museveni's policies and the government's criminal prosecutions of six journalists for their coverage.

In Uganda last week, four journalists from the leading daily Monitor filed notice that they would challenge the constitutionality of the criminal libel laws before the Supreme Court, the country's highest court, according to the newspaper's lawyer, James Nangwala. 

Government security forces intimidated and harassed critical journalists, particularly political commentators on the country’s many popular radio talk shows. Criminal defamation and sedition laws were the main weapons in the government’s legal attacks on the press, although a case pending before the Supreme Court held some promise that the laws might be declared unconstitutional.

New York, January 7, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the ongoing police persecution of two Ugandan journalists. The police's Media Offences Department has repeatedly interrogated the two over a story critical of the government's handling of an international security operation against the rebel Lord's Resistance Army last month, according to a local lawyer and journalists.

December 2008

New York, November 26, 2008 --The Committee to Protect Journalists honored five journalists with its 2008 International Press Freedom Awards in a ceremony Tuesday night that highlighted journalists imprisoned worldwide. A Zimbabwean media lawyer who has successfully defended numerous journalists facing prison was honored for her lifetime achievements.