By Izama Angelo
Oct 24, 2003
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KAMPALA - Press freedoms in Uganda are worse today than they were a year ago according to the latest rankings by the group, Reporters Without Borders. Uganda has fallen from number 51 to 91 among 166 countries in the 2003 rankings. The latest rankings place Uganda just ahead of war-ravaged Burundi and ten points behind Kenya. The report, a second edition of the global rankings, assesses press freedoms in countries depending on how safe it is for journalists to work. It catalogues murders or arrests of journalists as well as censorship and pressure, state monopolies in various fields, punishment of press, law offences and regulation of the media to come up with the list. The government spokesman, Information minister Nsaba Buturo yesterday rubbished the report. "I have no respect for them [Reporters Without Borders]. It's nonsense and they are not serious or professional," he told The Monitor. The Minister also said Uganda's fall in the rankings was a result of "a few incidents over many years" referring to the government shut down of The Monitor in October last year and thereafter of a Catholic-run FM radio station in Soroti. Both media houses were closed over their reporting of the war in the north. "The media has gone through hard times in Uganda... press freedoms are related to the political environment in the country; where political parties are barred from operating, it is not always possible to have a vibrant media," he said. However, Mr William Pike, the managing director at the government-owned New Vision said yesterday that Uganda's press is freer than "any country in Africa" The president of the National Institute of Journalists in Uganda, Ms Linda Wamboka, said: "Journalists in Uganda face a lot of harassment". The worst place for journalists, according to the report is North Korea followed by Cuba, described as "the world's biggest prison for journalists". |
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
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