In fact, according to witnesses, it appears that in today’s attacks, which left at least three journalists – Ashraf Kasirye, Ali Mivule and Daniel Lutaaya – in hospital with serious injuries, security agents deliberately targeted journalists.
We have arrived at a point where wearing a press jacket that clearly labels one as a journalist makes them less safe and more likely to be targeted for attack. This is unacceptable; journalism is not a crime.
We will continue to document collective attacks against journalists and the individual officers who carry them out and those with operational command. Attacks on journalists will not go unrecorded or unpunished. Impunity shall not be allowed to thrive.
While we are specifically concerned about the attacks against journalists, we are also gravely concerned by the unprecedented violence that has undermined this electoral season, and in which many non-journalists have been killed, injured, or been detained, sometimes without trial and for longer than is constitutionally allowed.
We are concerned that the country is, yet again, sliding down the slippery road of political violence and undoing all the efforts of constitutionalism and the rule of law that have been undertaken for many decades.
We are calling on Inspector General of Police Martins Okoth Ochola and the Chief of Defence Forces Gen. David Muhoozi to rein in the men and officers under their command, to publicly condemn the attacks on journalists, and to order a transparent and independent investigation into the violence involving security agencies.
We will continue to assess whether it is safe to continue sending out our journalists to cover these campaigns and other public and state events.Â