Another journalist beaten to death

A journalist was on Wednesday morning beaten to death by unknown assailants wielding metal bars in Mukono District. The killing comes three days after Joseph Kiggundu, a journalist who was working for Top Radio was killed by a mob of bodaboda cyclists in Rakai District.

According to Human Rights Network for Journalists (HRNJ – Uganda), Mr Dickson Ssentongo, a news anchor with Prime Radio was waylaid by unidentified men at Nantabulirirwa village who reportedly hit him at 5:00 am.

Mr Ssentongo is said to have been on his way to his working station on foot to catch a taxi on the main road.
“They dragged him about 100 meters away from the scene of crime where they left him lying unconscious in a pool of blood,” the statement from UHRJ says.

The 29-year-old journalist joined the Kireka based Seventh Day Adventist church owned radio two years ago as a Luganda news anchor.
He has also been a court assessor for the Mukono High Court circuit. He joined active politics and was an aspiring councilor for Nantabulirirwa Parish at Ggoma Sub-County on the ticket of the Democratic Party.

Mr Ssentongo died at Mulago Hospital where he had been rushed for treatment.

This seems to be a resurgence of attacks of media practitioners since a similar case was last reported in 2004 when Ms Wilbroad Kasujja, a news anchor at a community radio in Buwama was raped and killed. No conclusive investigations have been made and produced.
HRNJ condemned the atrocities and demanded that Police acts expeditiously to bring to book all the culprits.

Uganda Journalists Association(UJA) president Joshua Kyalimpa has urged all journalists in the country to dress in black this Friday to show solidarity in mourning of the killed colleagues.