Human Rights Network for Journalists – Uganda (HRNJ-Uganda)

Ugandan police have arrested four anti-corruption activists and detained them for over six hours at the Central Police Station in Kampala for protesting the misuse and theft of public funds by government officials.

Vision Group journalist Pere Thomas was killed by unknown assailants on 16 June 2013. His laptop and cell phone were also stolen.

IFEX members sent a joint letter to President Museveni calling for an end to impunity in cases of police violence against the media, after a violent crackdown on a demonstration in May over media closures.

Four media houses, which were arbitrarily closed by the Ugandan government, were reopened on 30 May. This comes after 10 days of heavy police deployment at their respective premises, where journalists were attacked and arrested.

Police detained and hit journalists during a protest against the seizure of four media outlets on 28 May. Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda’s Geoffrey Wokulira Ssebaggala was among those arrested.

On 23 May 2013, Ugandan security operatives defied a court order demanding them to vacate the premises of Monitor publications, as they arrested five civil society members who were protesting the defiance.

Security agencies restricted the entry and exit into the premises of two print publications on 20 May 2013, and later took two radio stations off the air. The security personnel told some of the employees that a court order had declared their offices to be a “scene of crime”.

IFEX members called on Philippines authorities to reprimand a local police chief who arrested a radio broadcaster without a warrant after he talked about police incompetence on the air.