Re:Why Gawaya-Tegulle is wrong on licensing journalists<http://www.ugandarecord.co.ug/index.php?issue=26&article=324&seo=Why%20Gawaya-Tegulle%20is%20wrong%20on%20licensing%20journalists> Hallo Mr. Musaazi-Namiti,No wonder that the "Monitor" Newspaper has now become a dirty rag !!With skunks like Gawaya-Tegulle, Onyango-Obbo, etc.... it was just a matter of time.Only that I feel sad for the few decent folks, like Bernard Tabaire, etc....But Al Jazeera too is heading in the same direction. They seem to think that if they try to be more Fox than Fox News the racist Zionist WASP slavemaster will stop to demonize Islam. Why not take a leaf from, say, Press TV, and stand on your legs, with honour and dignity.Mitayo Potosi.========================
<http://www.ugandarecord.co.ug/index.php?issue=26&article=324&seo=Why%20Gawaya-Tegulle%20is%20wrong%20on%20licensing%20journalists>Why Gawaya-Tegulle is wrong on licensing journalists <http://www.ugandarecord.co.ug/index.php?issue=26&article=324&seo=Why%20Gawaya-Tegulle%20is%20wrong%20on%20licensing%20journalists> The Daily Monitor's logo and tag line. * By Musaazi Namiti* Daily Monitor's columnist Tom Gawaya-Tegulle recently wrote an article calling for the licensing of Ugandan journalists and allowing only those with diplomas and degrees to become journalists ("A test case for professionalisation of the media", October 17, 2009). His contention was that this would enhance professionalism. In retrospect, he was echoing the words of minister Eriya Kategaya, who while chairing a cabinet sub-committee on press issues in April 1995, was quoted by the government-owned New Vision as saying: "We don't want people to wake up and just become journalists when the role they play is vital in society." The remarks were made while debate on a bill that led to the enactment of the Press and Journalists Statute, 1995 was going on. In his article, Gawaya-Tegulle also referred to this law which established a Media Council tasked with licensing and disciplining journalists. "As a country we must insist on a university degree and a minimum of a diploma in journalism before a license is issued," he wrote. "If journalism is to be respected as a profession, tighter controls must be imposed by raising the standard of who qualifies to rule the airwaves and the press pages." Gawaya-Tegulle is a respected journalist with many years of experience in both the print and broadcast media. What's more, he has studied or is studying law, but his article creates the impression that he does not even know that licensing journalists contravenes the supreme law of the land, the constitution. I reflected on his article, and I have to say it is hard to think of a more absurd statement from someone who knows or should know much more than the man in the streets. Journalism is about freedom of expression. It is at it its best in countries where journalists are free to write or broadcast just about anything. Enacting laws that require people to have university degrees or diplomas in journalism before they can work for newspapers, news websites, news magazines, radio or television stations deprives them of freedom of expression. Civilised countries continue to reject the notion that journalists can only be allowed to work if they have degrees. Brazil's Supreme Court, for example, recently overturned a law that requires a journalism degree for practising journalists. Chief Justice Gilmar Mendes said that journalism "is connected to the broad exercise of freedom of expression and information, and the degree requirement goes against the Constitution, which guarantees those freedoms". A quick look at our own Constitution (I hope Gawaya-Tegulle reads it) shows that Chapter 4 talks about fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual which are "inherent and not granted by the state". The Constitution states that the "rights and freedoms of the individual and groups enshrined in this chapter shall be respected, upheld and promoted by all organs and agencies of government and by all persons (including, I suppose, Tom Gawaya-Tegulle)". In article 29 (clause 1), the constitution says "every person shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression which shall include freedom of the press and other media". The Constitution does not say that freedom of press and other media will be a preserve of people who hold a university degree or a diploma in journalism. Journalism is not law; it is not medicine. We are seeing citizen journalists with blogs multiplying like malarial microbes, and this is never going to be reversed. You may refuse to call bloggers journalists but given the broad definition of journalism, they are and will always be – even without college degrees. Some of the world's leading news organisations like the BBC hire journalists without considering academic qualifications at all. In its handbook, The Basics – Our Values, Your Career, the BBC clearly states: "Most people think you need a degree or some sort of media qualification to start a career with the BBC, which is simply not true. We're often far more concerned with your interests, knowledge and relevant work experience than which exams you have passed." I could go on and on reeling off names of people who are or have been great journalists without journalism diplomas and degrees, but they are too many to be adequately dealt with in a mere article. By calling for the licensing of journalists, Gawaya-Tegulle is in effect saying that the state should reserve the right to allow people what to write in newspapers and say on the airwaves. The state can easily deny those whose work it is not happy with the right to practise journalism. The absurdity of Gawaya-Tegulle's proposal is that besides taking away freedom of expression, it can only be implemented at the cost of many news organisations. Newspapers and radio stations in Kampala rely on correspondents in rural areas who are not graduates or journalism diploma holders to file stories. While unprofessionalism in the media can be attributed to untrained people, the real problem is that organisations such as the Media Council, which should regulate the media, are weak. They do not work in the real sense of the word, and have allowed news organisations, especially radio stations, to get away with murder. I am for training and I think well-trained journalists often do a great job, but not always. I also know perfectly well that universities and the qualifications they give students cannot stop journalists from being unprofessional. Kampala boasts of a newspaper called the Red Pepper which prints false stories every so often, and pays scant attention to good ethical behaviour as we know it. But this paper is run by graduates one of whom – horror of horrors – has been teaching journalism in some colleges in Kampala. A former editor at the Red Pepper, J.B. Waswa, also has a college degree and has been teaching news writing at Makerere University's Department of Mass Communication. In August 2005, Andrew Mwenda, a well-known and highly educated Kampala journalist, used the airwaves to insult President Yoweri Museveni and even threatened to go to State House in Nakasero and remove him from power. His justification for this unprofessional conduct was that since Museveni insults journalists by calling them "vultures", he should also be insulted. This goes to show that if we think, like Gawaya-Tegulle, that having journalists with diplomas and degrees is the solution to unprofessionalism, and that we can deprive non-graduates of the right to freedom of expression because they will succumb to unprofessional conduct, we are dead wrong. You can have unprofessional conduct among graduate journalists and non-graduates. I think we can eliminate unprofessionalism in the media by creating an effective regulatory body like the Press Complaints Commission and Ofcom in the UK. This body can do its job while news organisations continue hiring those with the qualifications that they want, without enforcing laws that lock people out of a profession they have the right to be part of. Musaazi Namiti is Al Jazeera's online news editor based in Doha, Qatar. The views expressed in this article are his own. robymusa...@hotmail.com
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