WHY IS UGANDA'S MEDIA SHUNNING ANTI-HOMOSEXUALITY BILL DEBATES

A Bill of Public Interest

By John Blanshe Musinguzi

 

The New Vision of 26^th December 2014 refused to publish Ian Clarke’s article titled, ‘Gay Bashing will get us all Bashed’ due to editorial policy. He later posted it on his Facebook fans page account called ‘Dr Ian Clarke New Vision Articles.’ Unfortunately he did not give details of editorial policy. May be, New Vision did not furnish him with details of their editorial policy that barred his article from being published.

Clarke argues that Most Ugandans do not understand two important factors behind this debate. The first is that the anti-gay lobby is being heavily influenced by the American evangelical lobby, through such pastors as Martin Sempa, certain bishops in the Church of Uganda, and parliamentarians such as David Bahati. The second is that the moral outrage being voiced against Uganda in the west is primarily about human rights, it is not a gay lobby.

He adds that the two foremost Christians who have commented on the gay debate are Pope Francis and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Pope Francis did not condemn gays, but rather said ‘If a homosexual person is of goodwill and is in search of God, I am no one to judge.’  In sum his opinion was in support of homosexuals and against the bill.

His opinion was later published by the Independent Magazine online website on 6^th January 2014. All responses to his opinion both on his Facebook page and Independent Magazine were negative. No one agrees with him at any point. I too do not support his opinions due to our cultural beliefs. Uganda is an independent state and according to the norms of International Relations countries should respect each other and no state is mandated to intervene in internal affairs of another state. Western world is has more than a thousand times intervened in affair of African states yet we are no longer colonies.

Clarke came out to cry about his rejected opinion. This means that there may be other people who have tried to get their opinions about the bill published but failed. As a regular reader of Uganda’s leading dailies- Daily Monitor and New Vision, I haven’t read any comment whether in support or against the bill. I am skeptical that these dailies receive such comments but refuse to publish them as that one of Clarke was kicked away by government owned New Vision.

Homosexuality being a matter of public interest in Uganda, media should open discussions about it. Clarke, a supporter of homosexuals would come up with his comment; those against it would also raise their voices and say why. At the end, the majority would win.

No one would say that such newspapers are supporting or against homosexuality because comment are published in the opinions section. They are also distinguished from news.

I would judge New Vision decision basing on Journalism Professional Code of ethics as stipulated in the Press and Journalism Act. One of them says ‘No journalist shall deny any person with legitimate claim a right to reply to a statement.  Corrections and rejoinders are to be published in appropriate form without delay and in a way that they will be noticed by those who have received the original information.’ So Clarke was responding to the bill that had been passed by the parliament.