Uganda

2016

  
TV journalist Joy Doreen Biira walks out of the Kasese police station in Uganda, November 28, 2016. (Arne Gillis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Ugandan journalist Joy Doreen Biira charged with ‘abetting terrorism’

Nairobi, November 30, 2016–Ugandan authorities should immediately and unconditionally drop all charges against Kenya Television Network (KTN) reporter and anchor Joy Doreen Biira, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police detained Biira on November 27 after she reported on a deadly battle between police and a traditional monarch’s royal guard, charged her with “abetting…

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Uganda blocks social media sites for presidential inauguration

Nairobi, May 12, 2016 – Ugandan authorities should immediately restore access to social media websites and refrain from censoring any websites in the future, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Regulators blocked access to Twitter and Facebook, and to the messaging service WhatsApp today, according to press reports.

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In this February 22, 2016, photo, riot police prevent the media from approaching Uganda's main opposition leader Kizza Besigye as he tries to leave his house in Kasangati, Uganda. (AP/Ben Curtis)

Ugandan minister warns media not to cover protests

Nairobi, May 9, 2016 – Ugandan authorities should cease attempting to intimidate journalists in an effort to keep them from covering protests, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Double Exposure

When it comes to abusive readers’ comments and tweets from Internet trolls, Katherine O’Donnell has heard it all. For years, O’Donnell, who is night editor of the Scottish edition of the U.K.’s The Times, has borne the brunt of personal attacks, including about her gender, from online trolls who take umbrage at articles in her…

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Preparing for the Worst

It’s a calm day in a Ugandan village. Women gather on plastic chairs, shaded from the afternoon sun. I’m here with a handful of journalists on a reporting trip sponsored by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF). The village women welcome us and begin to tell us about their lives. Then something happens. A man…

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Footage shows journalist being punched outside corruption court in Uganda

The broadcast journalist Judith Naluggwa, who works for the state-owned station Bukedde Television, was attacked outside a Ugandan court on March 23, 2016 while reporting on a case of a minister at the Anti-Corruption Court in Kampala, according to the local press freedom group Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda.

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Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye, who is under house arrest, speaks during a news conference at his home on the outskirts of Kampala, the capital, on February 21. (Reuters/Goran Tomasevic)

After disputed Uganda election, journalists fear prolonged crackdown

Twenty nine-year-old photographer Abubaker Lubowa was excited when he was assigned to cover the campaign of opposition leader Kizza Besigye. He told CPJ he did not anticipate that the assignment would mean he would make the news almost as often as he covered it.

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Uganda blocks social media and mobile phone services during voting

Nairobi, February 18, 2016 — The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Ugandan authorities’ restricting access to social media as voters went to the polls in today’s presidential elections.

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Ugandan radio host arrested mid-broadcast

Kampala, February 17, 2016 – Ugandan authorities should immediately drop all charges against radio journalist Richard Mungu Jakican, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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A photo taken on February 11, 2016 shows election posters of incumbent President Yoweri Museveni and opposition leader Kizza Besigye in Kampala. (Isaac Kasamani/AFP)

Uganda elections approach amid hostile environment for media

Demonstrations against the government are a routine affair in the Ugandan capital Kampala, and Andrew Lwanga thought it would be just another day at work when he was assigned to cover a protest march by a few dozen unemployed youth on January 12, 2015.

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2016