Uganda’s new Minister for Information and Communication Technology, Frank Tumwebaze has urged Media Owners and Editors to ensure that they maintain objectivity, balancing and fairness in everything they print or broadcast.
Mr Tumwebaze was speaking at the inaugural stakeholders’ dialogue held on July 7, 2017, Sheraton Hotel in Kampala.
“To you the media colleagues, I pledge engagement. We shall always be there to tell our story and listen to those who don’t believe in what we do. I call upon you to give us equal media space,” Tumwebaze said.
“If you give a full page to an article of my critic, then do the same to my rebuttal. If you give a minute to a sound byte of my critic do the same to my rebuttal news byte such that your clients receive a balanced menu. Don’t deliberately make government look bad as if we can’t justify our actions by denying equal space to government messages. This is all I ask of you and it’s what I propose to define our principled relations,” he added.
Tumwebaze also pledged to improve the flow of communication between government entities, the media and the public on state programs.
“I am aware that many government departments, officials and leaders are always reluctant to share information with the Press thus allowing speculation and misinformation to thrive,” he promised.
“We will also provide a central point of feedback for the Public through a citizen call centre that we shall soon unveil to the public as part of government initiatives to promote citizen interaction.
Tumwebaze said he will Implore all government officials and offices to create a medium which will be used to pass on relevant information as and when needed, adding that this will help to reduce the publication of wrong information.
The government pledged to continue to have it periodically to take the conversation forward and provide feedback to each other on matters each player will have committed to.
