Government to probe journalists over rebel links

The government is to probe journalists suspected of collaborating with rebels, including two journalists from the independent daily The Monitor suspected of having links with the Lord's Resistance army (LRA). However, the defence ministry spokesman, Maj Shaban Bantariza, told IRIN on Wednesday that nothing was going to happen to the two journalists yet. "They are not yet accused of being terrorist collaborators until we have done a proper investigation," he said. Bantariza said last week that Andrew Mwenda and Wanyama Wangah, two Monitor editors, had links with the rebels. He told Radio Uganda that the army had recovered the telephone contacts of the journalists from the body of an LRA commander who was killed by UPDF forces in the north. But a source at The Monitor told IRIN that one of the telephone numbers the army had recovered was the official line of the paper's news editor. "The telephone number of a news editor is public. It is his duty to answer all calls, and if a rebel commander calls that number, what should he do? The same editors, too, have Bantariza's number. Should they be branded army collaborators?," the source wanted to know. Speaking to IRIN by telephone on Wednesday, Bantariza insisted that although no decisions to prosecute had been made, the evidence against the two journalists was damning and would prompt thorough investigations. "We have exposed them," he told IRIN. "These are people who used to get prior information about LRA operations and publish it, and we always wondered how. Now we know how." Under the Anti-Terrorism Act, adopted by parliament in March 2003, anyone caught having any dealings whatsoever with any group branded by the government as terrorists - chiefly the LRA - faces a stiff punishment, which could mean the death penalty. Human rights groups have condemned the Act, saying it gives the government of Uganda "Guantanamo Bay-style" powers to classify any person or organisation as "terrorist" and then treat them as it wishes. The government retorts that anyone apprehended under the Act will be tried according to due process in civilian courts. The government's remarks about the two journalists have been condemned by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Uganda Journalists' Union. "The wild allegations against some of the most prominent journalists in the country are outrageous," Aidan White, the IFJ general secretary, said in a press statement. "They are blatant efforts to systematically stifle voices of dissent and undermine journalists' rights to report in Uganda." But Bantariza said the law was very clear about the treatment those who have "dealings with terrorists" can expect. "This is not a matter of international law, but of Ugandan law," he told IRIN. "The Act is clear: anyone who has any dealings whatsoever with terrorists, not just those giving them support, is breaking the law."