UGANDA-KENYA: Politically motivated curbs on press freedom persist

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

NAIROBI, 12 Mar 2004 (IRIN) - Press freedom continues to be constrained by authorities in both Uganda and Kenya, according to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ).

Although Uganda enjoyed a relatively liberal media climate, journalists reported that authorities had shown an increasing tendency to "harass the media when they become too critical or tackle sensitive subjects", including Uganda's involvement in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, possible reform of the country's "no-party" system, government corruption and, in particular, the war in the north, said CPJ in its 2003 survey.

Journalists complained that the government used "outdated, colonial-era laws to silence the press on sensitive subjects" and that legal provisions on sedition, criminal defamation and publishing false news violated the 1995 constitution, said CPJ.

An anti-terrorism law enacted in 2002 imposed the death sentence on journalists who aired or published information deemed to promote terrorism, but activists said the definition was "too vague" and that the law was actually designed to stop them from reporting the war in northern Uganda.

The president of the National Institute of Journalists in Uganda said the main problem facing journalists was that they worked under "insecure conditions", including threats of beating and persecution. For example, in October, police beat and detained three journalists from The New Vision government-owned newspaper who were trying to photograph riot police at a peaceful strike by female textile workers in the capital, Kampala.

Kenya also came in for criticism. As the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) government - elected to power in December 2002 - came under increasing attack for failing to deliver on promises, Narc showed increasing signs of intolerance towards the media, CPJ reported.

In September, police arrested three senior staff members of the East African Standard newspaper after it published excerpts of leaked confessions in a murder trial. The confessions were from a suspect in the murder of Crispin Odhiambo Mbai, who headed a key committee of Kenya's Constitutional Review Conference and is believed to have been murdered for political reasons.

In December Attorney-General Amos Wako also effectively closed down so-called "scandal sheets", publications carrying gossip about Kenya's rich and powerful. A recent edition had listed the HIV status of some of the country's lawmakers, CPJ reported. Although mainstream journalists had questioned the ethics and professionalism of the papers, most had agreed that the closures constituted a threat to press freedom, said CPJ.

Journalists also expressed disappointment that the Narc government had failed to improve the legislative framework governing press freedom - including sections of the penal code, the Books and Newspapers Act and the Official Secrets Act, which criminalises breaches of government secrecy - despite its pre-election promises.

[ENDS]