The Executive Director of the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has warned television stations across the country against broadcast of graphic images from the crime scene where Police Spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi was murdered.
Kaweesi was Friday morning shot dead together with two of his bodyguards as he left his home in Kulambiro.
He was being chauffeured in a black land cruiser where his body was discovered in the morning. The murderers are still at large.
Graphic images of the blood bath and the dead bodies of the three police officers have since made rounds on social media and some TV stations have also picked them up, an act that the regulator, UCC says is not right.
“The commission has received complaints about repeated broadcast on various televisions of gruesome images of the crime scene including the bodies of the late AIGP Kaweesi and his colleagues that are causing distress to some members of the public,” reads part of a statement released by UCC boss, Mutabazi.
Mutabazi further stated that whereas it’s a duty of broadcasters to inform the public about news and current affairs, “it’s your obligation to ensure that such broadcasts are neither sensational nor unnecessarily alarmist.”
He asked that the broadcasters put into consideration the feelings of the bereaved, the psychological impact of such images to some members of the public and pay respect to the dead.
He further warned that re-use of any material in news and current affairs context in news or current affairs context does not create unfairness or distress to the public.
“The commission hereby directs all broadcasters to refrain from the repeated broadcasting of gruesome images, including those from this morning’s unfortunate incident,” wrote Mutabazi.