Journalists urged to protect ethics of practice
Military Police clobber supporters of Bobi Wine and journalists outside the UN offices in Kampala on February 17. Journalists say the current State laws are curtailing their work. PHOTO/AFP
What you need to know:
- There is need for consistent training of security agencies to ensure they know and respect human rights of journalists and Ugandans.
The Acting Chairperson Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), Mr Meddie Mulumba has said there is need for journalists to keep within the recommended codes and ethics of practice in order to maintain professionalism.
“The regime of social media has brought an onslaught on mainstream media, people want to have breaking news which leads to many media practitioners not carrying out thorough research and bringing out wrong information at times. Media must report responsibly, truthfully while keeping all your virtues in check,” he said.
Mr Mulumba made the remarks during a capacity building training for journalists on Human rights based journalism in Entebbe.
He said there is need for consistent training of security agencies to ensure they know and respect human rights of journalists and Ugandans.
“One of the things that we have done in the past two years is training security agencies about human rights. We believe when we train them they will come to know the importance of protecting the right of journalists,” he said.
The UHRC regional human rights officer, Ms Juliet Logose said the training was aimed at coming up with strategies for enhanced working relationship between the media and the commission.
Makerere University scholar, Dr Adolf Abaine said there is need for media houses to develop their own code of ethics in order to streamline reporters from breaking codes and ethics of journalism.
“Professional ethics must be paramount since we have increased competition, commercialization of media content and the onset of rapid developments like social media which has led to people throwing away their ethics in a bid to make profits,” he said.
Uganda Media Council (UMC) Assistant Accountant, Mr Peter Okello, said there is need to engage with media practitioners in order to remind them the ethical codes they should follow while at work.
