Monitor to resume publication

Ugandan authorities have permitted the country's largest independent daily to resume publishing, following a six-day siege of its offices in the capital, Kampala. Joseph Were, an editor, told IRIN on Thursday that the first issue of the Monitor newspaper was expected on the streets on Friday, as a result of the lifting of the blockade after a meeting between the paper's directors and government officials. "We are not back on the streets yet. We are still working on the issue to come out tomorrow," Were said. About 50 police and military intelligence personnel raided the paper's offices late on 10 October, and proceeded to search electronic and written material, according to staff members. The action was prompted by a report carried by the paper to the effect that a government helicopter gunship had been shot down by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army during a battle in northern Uganda. The army has denied that any of its helicopters have been shot down. Frank Nyakairu, the reporter who had filed the story, was arrested in the northern town of Gulu and was still in custody, while a number of the paper's editors had been interrogated by police, Were said. The managing editor, Charles Onyango Obbo, and the news editor, Wanyama Wangah, were charged in court for publishing "false information" touching on sensitive issues of Uganda's internal security. They were, however, released on bond, according to Were. The blockade of the paper's offices has been condemned by several international press-freedom organisations, including Human Rights Watch and Reporters Sans Frontieres. In neighbouring Kenya, journalists and opposition politicians urged the Ugandan government to resolve the dispute using "civil methods". "Confiscating equipment and shutting down of a newspaper is an outdated, excessive and expensive act of censorship. President Yoweri Museveni should not be allowed to gag the independent press," Kenya's independent Daily Nation, which also controls shares in the Monitor, quoted a local politician as saying on Thursday. Were said the paper had previously experienced harassment by government on several occasions, with its editors finding themselves in and out of court. Four years ago, the government had also banned all state institutions from advertising in the paper. "This is the first time the newspaper has been shut down by the government, but our editors have been harassed many times before," he said. "This makes our work very difficult. If the government felt angry about us, they should just have taken us to court. The laws are draconian enough, they did not need to shut down the paper." Earlier this week, Maj Shaban Bantariza, the Ugandan army's spokesman, told IRIN that the paper had on many occasions broken the law by publishing false information, some of which touched on sensitive security matters. "We have given them [the paper] advice verbally, informally, officially and in writing. They have ignored this advice," he said. "They must now realise that there is a law, and the law must be respected."