UJA – European Union meet ahead of world press freedom day set in May

A delegation of the European Union (EU) to Uganda has held a meeting with the supreme journalists body in the country, Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) ahead of the 2024 May 3rd World Press Freedom Day (WPFD).

The meeting was held at the EU offices in Kampala recently.

UJA team was led by the president Mathias Rukundo while the EU team by H.E Jan Sadek.

Mr Mathias Rukundo said in the statement that they organized a series of activities to mark the WPFD including the outreach meetings with advocates of press freedom.

“Our meeting focused on the debilitating press freedom in Uganda that has resulted into either detention, intimidation and arrest of some journalists” Mr Rukundo’s statement reads in part.

Rukundo noted that the EU is one of the Uganda’s development partners in among other areas, press freedom, environment, trade, health and therefore, there’s no way that you cannot engage with such partners when there’s a need.

The UJA president wondered as to why the journalism practice is being made risky by some wrong elements in government agencies and public yet it is lawful.

He said it was high time that journalists strongly put together their voice against such bad practices with implications on access to information to the society.

Mr Rukundo thanked the EU team for its passionate commitment towards the advocacy, promotion and protection of the press freedom.

WPFD acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom and is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics.

It is also a day of remembrance for those journalists who lost their lives in the pursuit of a story.