Minister of Information, Frank Tumwebaze has disagreed with claims that press freedom in Uganda is under threat, arguing that the media in Uganda enjoys a lot of freedom compared to other countries.
In recent weeks, the debate on press freedom in Uganda has come under sharp focus, with journalists and rights campaigners decrying the mistreatment of journalists while in their line of duty. This followed the assault of journalists by police officers weeks ago on two separate days during the trial of former Buyende DPC, Muhammad Kirumira.
But Minister Tumwebaze says these are only isolated incidents that should not invalidate the fact that Uganda is largely a country for free press.
“We know isolated cases of journalists complaining, having altercations with the security agencies, but we also have reports of journalists acting unprofessionally and acting in an unethical manner,” Tumwebaze told journalists at the Uganda Media Centre on Wednesday.
“Those isolated incidents are regrettable and we condemn them. We appeal to every actor to respect press freedom,” the Minister said, but was quick to add that “by and large, Uganda is largely a free society”.
According to Tumwebaze, Uganda ranks highly in regards to press freedom and liberalization of the media sector compared to other regional countries. He said that both the traditional media like print, radio and television, and digital media including online news outlets are blossoming.
“If you study the environment of many of our neighboring countries, how are we ranking? How may TVs do we have? We are even running short of spectrum for airwaves. So, no one can claim there is no press freedom when people are talking and voices are getting lost,” he said.
Uganda dropped five places to emerge in 117th position in the World Press Freedom Index that was released last week. The Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) rates the freedoms of journalists in 180 countries world over.
Compared with other countries in East Africa, Uganda came in third place after Tanzania which ranked 93rd globally and Kenya which came in 96th position.
Rwanda was ranked 156th despite having improved 3 places compared to the 2017 Index.
In his comments on the media landscape in Uganda, Minister Tumwebaze also challenged the traditional media to innovate more as well as uphold high standards of professionalism if it is to maintain its relevance. This, he added also entails creating content that is superior to new media platforms.
“Journalism has challenges globally. With citizen journalism, there is more you [mainistream media] need to do because everybody is now a journalist,” he said.
“The newsroom nolonger has the monopoly, and to remain relevant as a profession, you must adopt high levels of innovation wieved within ethical values such that people still differentiate between the professional press and the lifestyle of citizen journalism”.