Journalists under the Human Rights Network for Journalists- Uganda (HRNJ-U) have started gathering recommendations on how to tackle the brutality against journalists and laws that complicate their operations.
The journalists who gathered at Grand Imperial Hotel in Kampala on Friday said having tried numerous local solutions without success, the decided to take to United Nations (UN) Universal Peer Review Mechanism to address their concerns.
The meeting was aimed at gathering recommendations on how to better the operations of journalists in the country which will be tabled in a report before the Peer Review members by October.
HRNJ National Coordinator, Robert Ssempala told journalists that the process is important in that the country voluntarily undertakes to implement the recommendations put before it by the various counties at the Geneva Convention, which brings together the UN countries to make a self assessment of each member country of how they have progressed for the last five years.
“We think this a very important process because before it no one is above the law, we have seen in our local mechanisms where untouchable personalities abuse legal and justice systems and violate the orders of Court,” Ssempala said.
He revealed that one of the major highlights in the tentative report is the issue of high levels of impunity on the part of those that abuse journalists in their line of duty.
According to recent reports, the Uganda Police continues top the country’s biggest violators of rights of journalists.
Ssempala added that there is a shrinking space for critical and independent media to freely flourish and operate especially on issues of democracy and accountability and good governance.
“There is one area that touches the very restrictive and prohibitive legal frame work that aims at eating away the spaces for critical and independent media to flourish in the country.
“In fact, there is sheer lack of committeemen especially on the part of government to grow and nurture a very active and inquisitive media that can ably entrench rule of law and good governance in this country.”
Ssempala revealed that the final report will first be shared with Government and then handed over to the Universal Peer Review report before October. It will be used to assess the Government of Uganda as far as respect of Human Rights in concern and upon it, government will be requested to fulfill certain recommendations for the good of its citizens.