Saturday, July 11, 2009

The weekend debate: How free should the press be?

Aaron Kirunda

The journalism symposium hosted on Tuesday by Makerere University's Mass Communication department threw up a number of interesting issues. Perhaps the most contentious debate was between The Independent’s Managing Editor Andrew Mwenda and Pastor Martin Ssempa over freedom of the press. Ssempa called for a “firewall” to be implemented by the government to protect Ugandan citizens from salacious and smutty material. In contrast Mwenda argued that the market should be left to decide which newspapers prosper and which go out of business.

So what role should the government play in censoring aspects of the press? Is the smut published in papers like The Onion, and the dead body photos in Bukedde, a price worth paying for a free press?

Comments


I definately agree with pastor sempa's idea of a firewall on press freedom.
It this so called freedom that has opened up young people to violence and
immorality. On the streets, everywhere you turn is polluted by pornographic
material and death, whose effect must not be left for the consumers to chose.
Remember most of these consumers do not even know how dangerous this material is
to them, yet they mix with the rest of society. Government should definitely tighten a bit to ensure media discipline.

2 comments:

AfroGay said...

Aaron Timothy:

The beauty of being 24 is that you can advertise your ignorance without shame. No one expects a 24-year-old to really know what they are talking about.

So you have the luxury of saying whatever comes into your head without having to worry about whether it makes sense or not.

I would like to see you treat complex life issues with the same frivolousness in 10 years time when you should be older and, thus wiser.

The Ssempa you post articles for makes money out of railing against homosexuality so his deal is clear; if he doesn't rant and rave, his Wait Training funders will turn off the cash taps.

Unless you also intend to make your living out of the harassment of other human beings, it seems to me that you might want to do a little more research so that, if nothing else, you educate yourself on the issues about which you are posting.

Kaaront said...

AfroGay, how old are you? many times i pitty you, when you come out to comment on things you have no idea about. it is really funny. You clearly have no evidence about Ssempa getting money from Wait Training to talk about Homosexuality. I would wish that if you do not know you ask and you get informed.

It is really unfortunate that you look much older but do not seem to any wisdom, respect or even an eye for what is truly right. Wherever you are you know only very well that homosexuality is unnatural, i wonder why you guys get to do the un-natural things and enjoy them and get to hope that whoever does the opposite is wrong.

It is not about supporting ssempa, it is about standing for the truth and working in that direction not being deceived. 10 years from now i promise you i will be stronger on the same issues that are more natural that what you think or support.

Why do you even hide your name?