The opposition Democratic Party (DP) has said that it is set to start running a weekly paper ‘to address the escalating atrocities of Mr Museveni and his NRM government’.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters this morning, DP President General Norbert Mao said that the party newspaper comes at a time when Ugandan media outlets and journalists have come under attack from the state which he said, hinders them from fulfilling their watchdog role.
“This move is dedicated to undress the government; we are going to fight using it and not every fight is with a gun,” Mr Mao said adding: “It is also in the spirit of citizenship which many Ugandans miss.”
Mao said that although the main goal of the newspaper is to ‘publish the truth that which nobody wants to come out’, there will also be other news stories carried by the weekly publication.
“We would wish to educate and raise political awareness by exposing the ills of the government and naming individuals,” the DP president said.
Mr Mao said the move is just a revival of an act that had once existed during Obote II government where a DP publication exerted pressure on the government. The same idea was re-introduced in 2011 but didn’t work out since the Party had no printing press and most operators refused to print their stories out of fear of government action, he added.
At the same press conference, the DP also condemned ‘the violation of the national Constitution’ putting emphasis on the contents of the proposed Uganda Communications Bill of 2016 recently tabled in parliament.
“This doesn’t only give the Cabinet a blank check to control social media but it also undermines the powers of Parliament and deprives Ugandans of access to information and curtails freedom of speech as proposed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Mr Mao said.
