After years in electronic, print, and new (online) media, I cannot help but relate to what happens to the people on the ground. The journalists.
Even after crossing over to the advocacy and communication space, the journalist in me cannot just look on as our friends in the media get brutalised for one reason or another in their quest to bring information closer to us, in our boardrooms, on radio, or on television.
But then I remembered one quote that addresses both media and communication practitioners and possibly points to where these issues arise from.
‘Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is public relations’ is a popular quote attributed to George Orwell. Orwell (real name Eric Arthur Blair) was a British journalist, author, poet, and critic. This particular quote reminded me of what is going on between Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja and Galaxy TV journalist David Mwesigwa, with the latter having exposed the inefficiencies in the government hospitals in Mukono and Kayunga.
You and I probably have an idea about our government health facilities, but that is a subject for another day.
Mwesigwa has reportedly been directed to record a police statement and apologise to the prime minister and to the President. Mwesigwa already feels threatened and intimidated.
Yet, his exposé, in a set of questions he put before the President recently, prompted the prime minister to make unannounced visits to these health facilities. First, it was at Mukono General Hospital.
She was welcomed by patients and expectant mothers on the floor and along the corridors. As though those in Kayunga were tipped off, Kayunga Hospital was all clean and organised. What the premier found at Mukono hospital is exactly what Mwesigwa was talking about.
I thought the government now has somewhere to start from, rather than having the messenger be the subject? Anyway, this is just one of the recent happenings.
We have not yet forgotten what happened to journalists in Kawempe during the Kawempe North by-election. Journalists were brutalised, equipment confiscated, and the public denied information. During the same period, a licence belonging to Pearl FM was withdrawn over an alleged breach.
The station was carrying out a live broadcast of what was going on in Kawempe. In Rukungiri, Boona FM, a local radio station, was shut down over an alleged power struggle between two prominent rival politicians.
Back in Kampala, Dream TV was made to suspend a political show. The essence of having news reporters in the field and all these mediums is to give public access to reliable information.
When you block journalists from covering events that are of public interest, you do not just deny them a right to seek, receive, and share information; you also threaten media freedom. I suppose it is going to get worse as the country gets ready for the 2026 elections. It will most likely become predictable. Radio shows banned. Journalists suspended.
The radio or TV station closed, and licences revoked. Internet shutdown, etc. What we should all be concerned about is the accuracy of information, and we should fight misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation. In summary, fake news. Otherwise, access to information is a fundamental human right that we must all jealously guard, pay attention to the message, and not the messenger.
Otherwise, all these provisions in the Ugandan Constitution (Right of Access to Information), also guaranteed in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), all become useless.
Above all, let us empower citizens through the media to participate in public affairs and hold the government accountable.