New Vision editor-in-chief, three managers quit
Tabu Butagira
Kampala
The Editor-in-Chief of The New Vision newspaper, Ms Els De Temmerman, resigned
yesterday, just a month to the end of her two-year contract.
Ms De Temmerman's resignation, which takes immediate effect, comes a couple of
days after it emerged that three other senior managers were leaving the 3rd
Street-based media company. Human Resource Manager Carolyne Mboijana,
Production Manager Rachel Namuli and Circulation Administrator Margaret Wamweta
all resigned on Wednesday.
Mr Robert Kabushenga, the chief executive officer of The New Vision Printing
and Publishing Company, confirmed the developments but declined to give the
reasons for the high-profile exits. "Each one of them had personal reasons,
which are not connected," he said.
Ms De Temmerman said last evening that she had thrown in the towel for
"personal reasons, which I cannot disclose now. I was not forced to resign. I
had a great time working at The New Vision and I took the decision [to leave]
with a lot of regret".
Ms De Temmerman said as editor-in-chief she worked to highlight corruption in
government, abuse of women and children as well as environmental degradation,
especially the widely condemned government plan to dole out some 7,100 hectares
of Mabira natural forest for sugarcane growing.
"The circumstances were becoming a lot difficult to work in, and I thought I
had the luxury to act on principle [and resign]," Ms De Temmerman said, without
elaborating.
Mr Kabushenga announced the departure of his top editor during a scheduled
staff meeting at the company's parking yard yesterday afternoon. "The New
Vision has been around for over 20 years, and none of the employees is
indispensable," a staff member who attended the meeting quoted the CEO as
having said.
There was no word on possible replacement of the outgoing managers, some of
whom were reportedly encouraged to leave. Mr Kabushenga had initially only
talked about Ms De Temmerman's departure at the meeting until Ms Hellen
Mukiibi, the deputy news editor, inquired about the resignation of the others.
"People should not know what they are not supposed to know and those who know
should stay with what they know," he is reported to have responded.
Many of the staff sat pensively during the meeting, which Ms Mboijana attended
but said nothing. Her departing colleagues were absent. Ms De Temmerman, who is
Belgian, is the author of Aboke Girls, the 2001 book that recounts the
harrowing story of the 1996 abduction of girls from St Mary's College, Aboke,
by the LRA rebels.
She said she will take time off to rest and then launch into research for her
next book, and focus more on her philanthropic work such as paying tuition for
hundreds of school-going ex-LRA abductees.
The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"_______________________________________________
Ugandanet mailing list
[email protected]
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including
attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way.
---------------------------------------
