The Deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana has this morning taken a swipe at the media, saying the latter is not respecting the subjudice rule in the ongoing hearing of the 2016 presidential election petition.
Mr Rukutana, who is representing the President Yoweri Museveni in the petition that was filed by former aspirant John Patrick Amama Mbabazi, said the media should ‘report objectively and inform the public well’.
He further said media coverage of petition is designed to arouse anxiety and create a gloomy picture on the likely outcome of proceedings.
He cited a story in one of the dailies that was headlined ‘Mbabazi wins round one’ as one of the misleading stories. Rukutana also pointed to an article by retired Supreme Court Judge Justice George Wilson Kanyeihamba that appeared in the Sunday Monitor of yesterday titled ‘Ghosts of previous election petitions may haunt Supreme Court in 2016’ as another case of the disrespect of the subjudice rule.
In response Chief Justice Bart Magunda Katureebe said the media was only allowed in order to tell the public the truth.
“It is wrong to try and distort and spin,” the CJ added
