| 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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