Ugandan
authorities should immediately drop all charges against radio journalist
Richard Mungu Jakican, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Police entered the studios of the privately owned station Radio North FM in the
northern Ugandan city of Lira the night of February 13 and arrested Jakican in
the middle of his talk radio show, according to press accounts and
the Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda, an advocacy
group. Police also detained seven politicians who were discussing a recent
presidential debate on the show, the group said.
CPJ has documented a
worsening pattern of harassment and intimidation of journalists in Uganda as
presidential elections scheduled to take place February 18 approach. In recent
days, the government has deployed military troops throughout urban centers, an
act which some opposition candidates have criticized as intended to intimidate
voters,according to reports. President Yoweri Museveni, one of
Africa's longest-serving rulers, is seeking to extend his
30-year stay in power.
"Pulling a journalist and his guests away from the microphone in the
middle of a radio show is shocking, crude censorship," said CPJ Deputy
Executive Director Robert Mahoney in New York. "All charges against
Richard Mungu Jakican should be dropped immediately, and President Museveni
should ensure that all voices can be heard in this campaign."
Prosecutors initially charged Jakican, who is also the news editor of the
station, with malicious damage to property after police claimed he and the
politicians he hosted had defaced Museveni's re-election posters during a break
in the show. The charges were later amended to aiding and abetting a crime, an
apparent reference to the damaged posters, and he was released on February 17
on bail of 200,000 Ugandan shillings (US$60).
Haruna Kanaabi, executive director of the Independent Media Council, an associationof journalists that campaigns for self-regulation
of the media in Uganda, told CPJ he had conducted multiple interviews with
colleagues of the journalist and found that there was no indication that any
posters were defaced either by him or the politicians he hosted on his show.
Authorities have previously singled out radio stations, a particularly influential
medium in rural
Uganda, for unwelcome attention in the presidential campaign. On January 20,
another station, Endigyito FM, was closed down after
it hosted one of the opposition candidates, Amama Mbabazi. It remains
closed.
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