Oposition Democratic Party (DP) has appealed to all Ugandans to join forces and fight the new Uganda Communications (Amendment) Bill, 2016 which was recently tabled on the floor of Parliament by the Attorney General, Fred Ruhindi.
Norbert Mao, the party president on Tuesday told press, “The regime has again chosen to restrict the follow of information through the tabling of the Uganda Communications Bill 2016. As a lawyer, I can tell you that this law is unconstitutional and a blank cheque to control the flow of information especially social media and undermines the powers of Parliament.”
“You all know what happened when social media was switched off; the bill deprives Ugandans access to information and curtails freedom of speech as enshrined in our constitution,” Mao said.
“May be the reason for this new law is to hide the illegalities that this government has been involved in, many people have been arrested and are rotting in jails; we know they want to continue incarcerating people illegally.”
To this effect, Mao revealed that the party is set to revive ‘The Citizen’ publication that gave hard time to the ruling Uganda Peoples’ Congress (UPC) back in time.
“Some of you remember ‘Munnansi – The Citizen’ that exposed the evils committed by the UPC government,” he said.
Munnansi was a small weekly with a reputation for accuracy. At the end of 1984 four of its staff were arrested and the paper went underground.
Mao noted that the paper will soon be back on he streets and that the party recently acquired a printing press that will help them reduce the cost of the publication.
“Apparently the media is not listing the people who are being killed, the victims of police abuse; I don’t blame the media because if they choose to criticize government, they might lose out on business.”
“As DP we are going to re-launch our newspaper The Citizen and it will be dedicated to the continued undressing of the Museveni regime.”
“Some of you think that the Obote government fell because of those who were fighting in Luwero; it actually fell because DP continued to raise the conscience of Ugandans about the evils of government.”