Basoga measures will definitely fail
John Rwabuhungu
Information minister Basoga Nsadhu's planned measures for the media to "talk correctly" will fail. What the minister should do is always make sure that the public is given correct and timely news. Otherwise Ugandans today, given the present swift and reliable communication, are not only curious to know what is going on around the country, but have the capacity to discern fact from fiction.Whatever measures Basoga might institute, there will be nothing new. It is bad that the Movement has fed the public on lies for so long. It is gratifying however that even the uneducated Ugandans are gradually becoming suspicious of what the Movement says.
Not only the Movement is telling lies. Even government papers often do. Instead of fighting the independent press, Nsadhu should first attend to incorrect reporting in government papers.
If stories in the independent press are incorrect, the public will point it out. Fortunately on such occasions, the press has apologised. If the stories are correct, but are not what the Movement would like the public to read, whatever measures the minister takes to muzzle them, they will be "ashes in his mouth" in the end.
I wish to assure Nsadhu that in the likely event of introducing such draconian measures against the press, we shall all the same get the news on the war in the north because we want to know about the suffering of our brothers and sisters in northern Uganda. We are not interested in propaganda peddled by state media.
Private newspapers and FM radios will not fail to adopt new tactics and adapt themselves to the situation so as to give us the same news. We shall re-open “radio Katwe”. If all such sources fail there remains one impeccable source: the church.
November 19, 2002 00:56:58
Gook
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