By Idarus Pajobo

Arua

3^rd of May 2023 marks the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day. Three decades have passed since it was proclaimed in 1993, in which we have seen substantial progress towards achieving a free press and freedom of expression around the world.

The propagation of independent media in many countries and the rise of digital technologies have enabled the free flow of information. However, media freedom, safety of journalists and freedom of expression are increasingly under attack, which impacts the fulfillment of other human rights. The journalists are there for the people, they serve the community with every information that is of public interest. The question is, do they access this information without nails to crack?

In Uganda, in order to allow the public access information through different mediums, the parliament enacted the access to information act in 2005 to promote the right 0f access to information, an efficient, effective, transparent and accountable Government and to enable the public to effectively access and participate in decisions that affect them as citizens of the country.

In Arua city, a section of journalists reacted on the effectiveness of this act. Opio John Paul a journalist was quoted as saying, “I want to congratulate all journalists, though the environment in Arua is not yet to good for us to access information, you find that the community still have that negative mindset about our work. The moment you take a camera to capture photos, people turn against you. This has happened to Edina Piyic, Sabir Musa and Alua Ronald among others, if only people could understand that we are here for them, it would be a good thing.

The West Nile Press Association chairman Mr. Clement Aluma says that, the association has carried out trainings to empower the journalists in knowing their rights including access to information “What we have done as the west Nile press Association is that we have empowered journalists in line with the act of Access to information, prior to the outbreak of Covid 19, we trained over 45 journalists of which the majority were from Arua, we trained even those from Nebbi about that act of Parliament. So most journalist know about this law.” Said the chairman.
 
The secretary for security and social services Arua city central, Hon Osino Rashid   congratulated Journalists on the celebration of world Press Freedom day, and urged leaders to involve the media in the meetings and give them information freely. “I have seen that journalists have been sidelined in some of the activities in the central division, but today is the beginning of a change, that’s why we have involved the media in this security meeting, in all issues however small, even the NGOs we need to involve the media because it is through the media that we can fight corruption, fight crime, it is through the media that we can achieve! Without the media we cannot face the digital movement of the world.” Osino added.    

The journalist continue to hope for better response from authorities and stakeholders in order to serve the public with credible, viable and correct information.

COVER PHOTO: Some memebres of Westnile Press Association 9WENPA0 in group photo after training on reporting development. Photo credit WEMPA