An international press freedom watchdog on Tuesday decried a sedition charge brought against a Ugandan journalist for his comments about the death of Sudanese vice president and ex-rebel leader John Garang.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the charge against reporter Andrew Mwenda and the closing of the KFM radio station where he made the remarks were a blow to the independent media in Uganda.
”The Ugandan government’s targeting of Andrew Mwenda, together with official threats against the independent press, have cast a deep chill over Uganda’s independent media,” CPJ said in a statement.
”The government should not be using criminal charges to punish a reporter for his work,” the group said, urging that the case be dropped and the radio station be allowed to resume broadcasting.
”We call on the government to allow KFM to reopen and to drop these charges against our colleague immediately,” CPJ said.
Mwenda, who hosts a chat show on KFM and also works for the station’s print affiliate, The Monitor, pleaded not guilty to the sedition charge on Monday, saying he would not admit to a crime for expressing his constitutional right to free speech.
He faces up to five years in prison and a fine if convicted.
Mwenda was arrested on Friday, two days after suggesting on air that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and his government were responsible through incompetence for the July 30 helicopter crash that killed Garang.
Museveni had earlier threatened to close down any news outlet that reported conspiracy theories about the facts surrounding the crash which sparked deadly rioting and clashes in Sudan.
KFM was closed down less than 24 hours after the warning and remained shuttered for the sixth straight day on Tuesday although an official with the station’s parent company, Monitor Publications, said he hoped it would re-open this week.
”Hopefully, if the talks continue to be as positive as they have been, the radio will be able to re-open within this week,” said Conrad Nkutu, the chief executive of the company.
Garang died when Museveni’s presidential helicopter that was flying him back to southern Sudan from Uganda crashed in what most have said was an accident due to poor weather, darkness and possible pilot error.
But suspicion over the facts surrounding his death sparked violence between northern and southern Sudanese, prompting Khartoum to form a national committee to investigate the crash with international experts. – Sapa-AFP