Press Freedom and Globalisation - International Press Institute

Press Freedom and Globalisation
committees and hearings as well as courts. The practice is that media are free to refer to
what is said at these places and can cover cases almost without limits. Aspects which are
not covered in these places, or other cases, are subjected to strong regulations of libels and
so on. The result is a dual practice of news publishing. 176
’National security’ is often a reason for interfering with publishing. The Ugandan
newspaper The Monitor reported in October 2002 about a helicopter which crashed in
action against rebels in North. In this area, a civil war with the Lord Resistance Army
(LRA) is going on. The two decade old conflict is described by United Nations as “among
the worst humanitarian disasters in the world” having produced more than 1.5 million
internally displaced people. 177 The Ugandan government claimed that the article was likely
to endanger national security. The Monitor was raided by security personnel and closed
down for 10 days. One and a half years later, the Ugandan Supreme Court ruled that there
was no evidence to show that the helicopter report prejudiced national security. 178 Yet, the
government achieved its objective to intimidate the involved journalists and editors for a
while. The Monitor’s management suspect the action against the helicopter article to be a
result of critical reports in the newspaper which had been harsh to the government. 179
Protection of Journalistic Activities
Traditionally, it is the authorities’ treatment of journalists and journalistic activities which
have been the issue in dispute. Reported harassments targeting journalists in East Africa
stretch from arresting, imprisoning, questionning, charging and stripping of citizenship,
suing, expelling from certain places as well as closing radio stations and banning sources
176 Makali (ed.), Media Law and Practice, pp. 156-165.
177 International Crisis Group, Northern Uganda : Understanding and solving the conflict, an International
Crisis Group Report (Nairobi/Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2004), ICG Africa Report Number 77,
14 th April, 2004, pp. 1-2.
178 Abdallah, Halima, “ ‘Monitor’ journalists win case over chopper report” in Daily Nation (Nairobi: Nation
Media Group), news article, 1 st April, 2004; and Onyango-Obbo, Charles, “Ah, Unganda’s Press: So Free,
So Terrorised” in The East African (Nairobi: Nation Media Group), commentary, 5 th April, 2004.
179 Oral interview with Onyango-Obbo.
107