Police boss in trouble over beating journalists

Police officers drag a journalist after battering him. (File photo)

One of my students’ facebook posts reads: “For heaven’s sake, it is high time Uganda police behaved mature, learned and humane. To me, this DPC- Mwesigye Joram should face the courts of law for his weird act towards Andrew a WBS journalist.” This is a post from my second year student of Mass Communication. 

Her post is in reference to the disgusting video clips of a police officer assaulting journalists who were on their normal duty. The journalists, Andrew Lwanga and Joseph SSettimba were inhumanly assaulted by the very police who were meant to protect them.

This act has again poured mud at the police which have for long been blamed for its poor relationship with the media. It angers many ordinary Ugandans to hear that their informers are manhandled by the same institution, the police. 

On September last year, I asked my first year Mass Communication students of the challenges the journalists face while doing their work. It was not surprising that the majority were quick to say, “Constant harassment and beating from security operatives, mainly the police.” I again asked: “Why then do you do this course?” The answer was simple: “We love it.”      

People who work as journalists do it for passion, not for the high financial rewards attached to this profession. Many of these journalists are meagerly paid but they have never threatened to lay down their tools demanding for salary reviews. Despite this poor pay, they have endeavored to do their work.

Journalism is all about passion. Even teaching it is passion. Training journalists to the hostile world that await them is not what any lecturer wants. The work of journalists has been frustrated by the state. 

With many laws regulating their profession, poor pay, intimidations from the financially established people among others, assault and confiscation of their gadgets should not be another burden to these messengers.

When shall the work of journalists be appreciated by the police? I just imagine a Uganda without televisions, radios and newspapers on the streets for at least one month. How would this look like? 

Whenever the police arrest suspected terrorists, child traffickers, thugs, etc, they are quick to call the media for coverage, simply to show how hardworking they (police) are. But when it comes to covering riots and soliciting bribes by traffic officers, the journalists are beaten and forced to delete the video footages captured.

The current police had set a precedent in working with the media to fight graft, robberies, murder and other crimes but this might soon be lost if the media lift a ban on coverage of police activities.                    

We now hear that the DPC for Old Kampala Police Station Joram Mwesigye who assaulted the journalists has been detained and suspended from duty. Following the posts of many journalists on the social media, this is seen as a cover-up by the police as many think that Mr. Mwesigye might just be redeployed somewhere far from Kampala.  

There are few or even no cases of journalists being beaten by members of the public, save for some few wealthy people. This means that the works of the journalists are very much appreciated by the members of the public. 

It is therefore necessary for the police and other security operatives to respect the journalists before the lecturers of Mass Communication/Journalism in all Ugandan universities come out in large numbers to add their weight on their former students’ cause.