The Uganda police has revealed that they blocked the African Institute for Investigative Journalism (AIIJ) from premiering an Investigative documentary, because they didnt have clearance from the Uganda Media council.
‘On The Go’, The dark side of labour externalization is a documentary by the African Institute for Investigative Journalism which explores and exposes the controversies in labour export, putting all stakeholders on the spot and seeing accountable for the lives of Ugandans lost while working in the Middle east.
The documentary was scheduled for launch on Friday, February 17 ,2023 at Mestil Hotel & Residences ,Kampala at 2pm.
Mr Patrick Onyango, the Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesperson said that they were simply called in to enforce media law which requires such documentaries to be cleared by the Uganda Media council.
“It was very simple, as per the requirement that governs media industry such documentaries are supposed to be approved and cleared by Uganda Media Council (UMC)and this documentary had not yet been cleared by UMC,” Mr Onyango said
“As law enforcers we were called to enforce the law and see that these people do what’s required of them to go to media council and get the approval because Media Council according to the law they are supposed to assess and see what is the content and they are supposed to approve so ours basically was to enforce the law if they harmonise with Media Council they are free to go ahead and launch,” he added.
Mr Solomon Serwanjja the executive Director of AIIJ and also executive producer of the embattled documentary says they were only informed on D-Day that they needed police permission to screen this documentary.
“When we arrived here we were notified by the hotel that they received a call from police and indeed a delegation from Kabalagala police came to the hotel and told them that they shouldn’t allow us to proceed with the event except when we have an official communication and authorization from the Inspector General of Police,” he said.
Serwanjja says this is outside the norm and even outside law for such events.
“This is unusual ,how do you expect us to go to seek authorization from the IGP to okay an event? it is unprecedented. We are not bound and mandated to get that authorization, so when we arrived here we were blocked and our staff were chased out of the hall and it was quite disheartening the hotel that we had signed a contract with to host us decided to lock us out because they were under a lot of pressure from the police,” Sserwanjja added that, “this sets a bad precedence because that means that for every conference that is going to happen, you need an official document from the IGP to allow you to have a wedding, to allow you to have a conference, to allow you to have a workshop. If not, then why did the police actually block this?”
The Komla dumor award winner now blames the labour export company owners for stopping the launch of this documentary.
“Our understanding is clear that those in the labour export are some of the big people in this town. Go and check who owns these labour companies they are big people who perhaps never wanted the launch to happen.” he said
In a twitter space the AIIJ revealed that the Investigation was balanced and heard from all sides of the story.
“The investigation really seeks to give all sides of the story on labour externalization we have heard people who have come back from Saudi Arabia and indeed the bigger gulf crying and nursing wounds that we just decided to give them a voice ,the role of investigative journalist is to amplify the voice of the voiceless, to stand up for their rights and to share the story with the world and challenge those in places of power and authority to tell them look there’s a problem here.” Sserwanja said
He also added “Civil Aviation tells us that 640000 girls leave this country ,you have so many of these girls there and it is your responsibility the foreign affairs and indeed embassy in Riyahd and the labour recruiters to actually pay attention to the gross human rights violators in the gulf so this is what the story is about ,we are trying to give the story life so that it lives beyond where we publish it so that it can live to have impact on these girls’ lives who go outside.”
Uganda is currently into negotiations with Saudi Arabia on a new biletral agreement that is going to bind the two countries and set the terms and conditions of labour externalization.
AIIJ deputy Executive Director Raymond Mujuni says this presents a chance for Uganda to get a better deal and one that protects the human rights of Ugandans working in Saudi Arabia.
“it is an opportunity for us as a country to negotiate better and put our demands in we have to have a good negotiation that respects the values and rights of these Ugandans and I call upon those on the negotiating table of Uganda to hear from different stake holders about what they would love to put before the Saudi Arabian Government, it is important that we negotiate well on this bilateral such that our sisters and our brothers who go out to work get a decent salary, the government following up and someone should be held accountable incase of any gross human rights violations.” Mujuni said
Whereas the physical launch of the investigation did not happen, AIIJ managed to upload the documentary on YouTube and also did a twitter space about it.
