A Ugandan court has acquitted three journalists charged with endangering national security for reporting that rebels had shot down an army helicopter.
Chief Magistrate Frank Othembi ruled on Wednesday in a Kampala court that the government presented ”no evidence” that the story endangered national security and ”to establish that the publication is likely to assist the enemy in its operation would require the court to speculate about the future”.
The three journalists from the independent Monitor newspaper, including the paper’s then-managing editor, were arrested on October 10 2002, the day the Monitor published the story about Lord’s Resistance Army rebels downing a helicopter in northern Uganda.
The government denied the report and shut down the newspaper for more than week. The paper was allowed to reopen only after agreeing to retract the story and print an apology.
However, at the time regional intelligence sources said in Nairobi, in neighbouring Kenya, that it appeared a Ugandan helicopter had been shot down.
The journalists have been out on bail since the trail began a few days after their arrest.
President Yoweri Museveni has repeatedly complained about the Monitor‘s critical coverage of the government’s attempts to put down the 17-year rebellion by the Lord’s Resistance Army. — Sapa-AP