Media defenders seek urgent court injunction against restrictions on journalists to cover elections

Government is accused of prohibiting Media scrutiny of the electoral process

The Miscellaneous Application No. 01 0f 2021, was filed by HRNJ-U together with the East African Media Institute and the Centre for Public Interest Law. It comes after the trio jointly filed an petition in the Constitutional in 2014 registered under Constitutional Petition N0.009 of 2014 challenging the constitutionality of several provisions of the Press and Journalists Act Cap. 105 some of which are being invoked by the Media Council of Uganda now to accredit local and foreign journalists covering elections.

The parties also filed an application for a certificate of urgency to allow the application to be heard expeditiously because court is still on vacation and yet elections have a limited period of time with voting coming on the January 14, 2021.

The court fight is one of the steps being taken by journalists and media defenders to push back against the government’s decision to restrict journalists to freely cover the forthcoming elections.

On December 10, 2020, the Media Council of Uganda issued a statement requiring all journalists, local or foreign intending to cover elections and other State events to hold a press tag issued by the Media Council and without it, no one would be allowed to cover the events.

According to the Media Council of Uganda, the registration process “will ensure the safety and security of journalists”. Other valid accreditations of Foreign correspondents, previously carried out by the Uganda Media Centre, were immediately terminated.

HRNJ-U says that the Media Council’s directive was harsh on journalists some of whom were already upcountry covering the presidential candidates, and yet it provided for just 14 days to carry out the registration.

“The timing for registration is questionable given that some journalists who presented all their credentials much earlier had not been registered. Some journalists expressed concern over the UGX200,000/= (USD.55) fees for the registration,” HRNJ-U says.

Many proprietors of media houses, Editors, and Media development organizations have expressed concerns over the timing and suspicious intentions over this process.

The petition by HRNJ-Uganda adds to others by the CEPIL, Hub for Freedom of Expression, Editors Guild of Uganda among others seeking to stay the Media Council directives.

“We are certain that continued pursuit of accreditation for journalists to cover elections will disenfranchise most of them who will not be able to register during this limited period of time, and this will certainly limit the free flow of information to the wider citizenry and hence their decisions to make informed decisions. The Media Council needs to open up this process till after elections” said HRNJ-Uganda’ Executive Director, Robert Ssempala.

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