PRESS FREEDOM IN UGANDA

That this House notes with concern reports indicating that the long-serving Managing Editor of the Ugandan government-owned New Vision publication, Mr William Pike, a British national, has been sacked; is concerned that Mr Pike may have been sacked because he opposed the fraudulent 2005 constitutional amendment which opened the door for Yoweri Museveni to become a life President and for giving some favourable coverage to the main opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye; also notes with concern that Mr Pike is to be replaced with Mr Robert Kabushenga, a hard-line supporter of the ruling Movement Party; recalls that it was Mr Kabushenga who engineered the expulsion from Uganda of the Canadian reporter for the Economist Magazine Mr Blake Lambert, who was accused of endangering the security of Uganda; also recalls the closure of several radio stations and the arrest of many journalists, including Andrew Mwenda, Ibrahim Semujju and Charles Onyango Obbo; fears that under Mr Kabushenga the New Vision will abandon any pretence of balanced and objective coverage and further weaken press freedom in Uganda; and calls on the UK Government, the donor community and aid agencies operating in Uganda to regard with suspicion any reports filed by the New Vision.