| TORONTO
In reading Dr Muniini Mulera's article in your Monday's opinion pages, I
found it hard to pass with out a comment.
My friend Dr Mulera makes some
very good points and I completely agree with him that there are questions which
have to be both asked and answered. I have a problem with the closure of KFM
93.3, the Monitors FM radio station, but not being in Uganda I do not know if
this station was warned by the agency on what it should air on the public waves
or not, makes it difficult for me to make a call on it either way.
But
here is where I have a problem with Mulera's article; he is failing to make one
very important point, that freedom of speech is not an open ended status. We all
use freedom of speech but we respect the law.
I read the transcript of
Andrew Mwenda and some of the statements he made in that program, Dr Mulera can
not make them in Canada waves if he wants to have a license.
I have to be
very careful here for Andrew Mwenda's case is soon going to be before a judge so
I cannot debate any of his statements.
But I would ask Dr Muniini Mulera
to go back and read the transcript of that program, and wonder if he had a radio
station in Canada if he would make such statements on a prime Minister of Canada
and see if the CRTC would not yank his license.
Freedom of speech does
not empower us to disrespect our leaders, and I happen to be one of the people
who have opposed the Movement for a very long time, but like it or not Yoweri
Museveni is a president of Uganda today, and we owe him that respect.
Danger
The danger here is that there is no way you can
disrespect Yoweri Museveni with out disrespecting the position he holds.
And
I wish Dr Muniini Mulera used this chance to point out to his audience that
respect of the presidency is paramount in all things we discuss in or on our
nation.
The questions Dr Mulera asked are understandable and they need to
be asked and answered as I stated before, but why am I able to understand them
in Mulera's article and I can not understand them in Andrew Mwenda's transcript?
Yet Dr Mulera is not a journalist and Andrew Mwenda is. That is the main
problem in this whole circle.
Lastly the movement has brought very many
changes to our nation. we used to have only land lines today we are in cell
phone times.
The Internet was introduced including reading Daily Monitor on
line, but I have looked very carefully on how we use these new facilities.
The other day a Florence Namutebi from Sweden wrote a letter in Daily
Monitor complaining about the abuse of Uganda chat rooms. When you read Andrew
Mwenda's transcript, one can not help but wonder if we were ready to move from a
state one controlled radio station.
We need to build freedom of speech in
our nation, but let us not forget the growth of journalism that must follow
it.
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