New York, January 25, 2012--Ugandan authorities must hold to account members of security forces who fired Tuesday on a photojournalist covering their attack on the motorcade of opposition leader Kizza Besigye, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Ugandan police have shuttered 13 broadcasters since December, accusing them of misusing power supplies and equipment belonging to the state-run Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC). The widespread allegations of corrupt deals between the state broadcaster and ostensibly private stations reveal more than illicit transactions--they expose a lack of independence within Uganda's broadcast sector.

Kassahun Yilma left Ethiopia quickly in December 2009. He didn't have time to save money for the journey, choose a place to go, arrange housing or a job. He left his wife, his mother, his house and all his friends behind. Yilma didn't know what lay ahead. He only knew that if he stayed, he risked becoming a victim of a government-waged campaign against Addis Neger, the newspaper where he worked as a reporter.  "I ran away just to save my life," says Yilma, "because I was in fear for it."

The crime reporter for Uganda's vibrant Daily Monitor, Andrew Bagala, went to an odd funeral over the weekend. Last week, he covered the murder of online journalist Charles Ingabire, 32, who was shot dead in the early hours of Thursday morning by unknown gunmen at a bar in a Kampala suburb. "I decided to follow up the case and attend the funeral," he told me. "It was first funeral I have ever been to in Africa where there was silence."

New York, November 28, 2011--Anonymous callers have repeatedly threatened Ugandan radio journalist Robert Ssembuusi over the past week after he aired a story implicating a former local mayor in corruption, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

New York, July 26, 2011--Security services in Uganda are in flagrant violation of a 48-hour constitutional limit on pretrial detention with their imprisonment of a journalist for 13 days without charge, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Frank Nyakairu has seen it all. A veteran war reporter, he has covered the horrors of northern Uganda and Somalia, among others places. And throughout this time of rich but often appalling experiences, he has also seen the auspicious--and sometimes terrifying--impact the Internet has had on East African reporters. 

Nyakairu spoke at a recent workshop held in Johannesburg, South Africa, co-organized by Global Voices, Google Africa, and CPJ. Attendees at the conference comprised some of the most active African bloggers and online reporters on the continent who came to learn how to sharpen their online reporting skills while avoiding the censors. 

New York, June 1, 2011--The Kampala Magistrate Court released online editor Timothy Kalyegira on bail today after the court remanded him on Tuesday to Luzira prison in the capital, Kampala. He is expected to return to court on June 30.

New York, May 25, 2011--Police raided the offices of the independent, Luganda-language weekly, Gwanga, Tuesday, arresting two senior editors and two other staff members on criminal libel charges, local journalists told CPJ. Twelve officers came to their offices in a suburb of the capital, Kampala, arresting Managing Editor Kizito Sserumaga, Coordinating Editor Alex Lubwaga, reporter Patricia Serebe and security guard, James Lukyamuzi. Police released the journalists and their guard from the Old Kampala Police Station at 8:30 p.m. on police bond. They reported back today, local journalists told CPJ.

New York, May 18, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns President Yoweri Museveni for publically criticizing local and foreign media outlets. Museveni expressed anger over the outlets' coverage of protests by the opposition over rising fuel prices. In a letter published Tuesday in the state-owned daily New Vision, Museveni accused Al-Jazeera, the BBC, the Kenyan broadcaster NTV, and the local independent Daily Monitor of being supporters of recent opposition protests and "enemies of Uganda's recovery."