By Bridget Agenorwot

Gulu City

Some Media practitioners in Gulu City have been engaged in a workshop to look at the state of freedom of expression in Uganda, especially in the context of northern Uganda.

The training was organized by African Center for Media Excellency (ACME) in collaboration with the Northern Uganda Media Club (NUMEC). The focus was on the safety of journalists amidst rising threats to freedom of expression.

The dissemination workshop took place last week at the NUMEC offices in Gulu city. “Freedom of expression is an enabler to enjoyments of other rights and it’s important to bring out to fight impunity and also remind people that freedom of expression is important and everybody has a role to play,” said Kakaire Apolo the communication and advocacy manager at ACME.

He further said journalists are the biggest victims of violations and this should be the starting point of ensuring safety.

 
Media practitioners from Acholi sub-region during the workshop
 
Brian Ssenabulya the research and programme officer at ACME noted that, “the research conducted on the violence against freedom of expression from August 2022-August 2023 shows that, the majority of the victims were male journalists with 81 percent while women were 19 percent and the perpetrators were, politicians, activists, journalists, and ordinary people.”

He also revealed that, the circumstances surrounding the threats he said are, publication of stories, content creation for on air presentation among others. He concluded by saying that, the data was collected from reports in mainstream and online media as well as through ACME network of partners across the country.

Alfred Oryema the project coordinator at NUMEC said, “Some time back, groups of journalists were taken to barracks and beaten for pursuing stories that are not liked by the government.” “He further noted that, the survey done by NUMEC in 2022 shows that they registered 32 cases of violations against journalists, he alleged that, the Acholi region has a history of coming from the LRA war and media has been critical on reporting on issues like peace and negotiation but because these journalists come from backgrounds of war, there is always bias in doing their work when they interact with some organizations.

He concluded that journalists in northern Uganda are not yet safe and they are still facing challenges.

Julius Ocungi, also a journalist acknowledged the violations of expression against journalists and also gave out some of the experiences he had when covering certain stories. He later testified the importance of the gathering, “Since research shows that police are the biggest perpetrators, my prayer to them is that they should work hand in hand with the journalists because the two really need each other”.

COVER PHOTO: Group photo of all stakeholders after the workshop By Bridget Agenorwot