{"id":1226791,"date":"2022-10-17T15:11:13","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T15:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/10\/17\/media-groups-ask-ugandas-top-court-to-scrap-law-over-free-speech-fears\/"},"modified":"2022-10-17T15:11:13","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T15:11:13","slug":"media-groups-ask-ugandas-top-court-to-scrap-law-over-free-speech-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/10\/17\/media-groups-ask-ugandas-top-court-to-scrap-law-over-free-speech-fears\/","title":{"rendered":"Media groups ask Uganda&#8217;s top court to scrap law over free speech fears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/image-prod.iol.co.za\/16x9\/800?source=https:\/\/xlibris.public.prod.oc.inl.infomaker.io:8443\/opencontent\/objects\/4199cebd-de1c-5d6a-abe1-67ccacaa60d0&amp;operation=CROP&amp;offset=0x44&amp;resize=3481x1959\" class=\"type:primaryImage\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Kampala \u2013 Media groups asked Uganda\u2019s top court on Monday to scrap a new digital communications law which they said broke the constitution and crippled free speech.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cComputer Misuse (Amendment) Act\u201d, which came into force last week, bans people from using a computer to send any information that might ridicule or degrade someone.<\/p>\n<p>It forbids the recording or videoing of anyone without their consent, among other clauses, and has penalties ranging from fines to jail time. <\/p>\n<div>!function(e,t,r){let n;if(e.getElementById(r))return;const a=e.getElementsByTagName(\u201cscript\u201d)[0];n=e.createElement(\u201cscript\u201d),n.id=r,n.defer=!0,n.src=\u201dhttps:\/\/playback.oovvuu.media\/player\/v1.js\u201d,a.parentNode.insertBefore(n,a)}(document,0,\u201doovvuu-player-sdk\u201d);<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Ruling party officials and other supporters of the legislation have argued it will curb hate speech, protect children and stop the sharing of false or malicious information.<\/p>\n<p>President Yoweri Museveni, who signed the bill into law on Thursday, has regularly complained about what he calls lies against his government on social media.<\/p>\n<p>Rights groups have called the law draconian, and said it adds to the arsenal authorities use to target critical commentators and punish independent media.<\/p>\n<p>In their filing to the Constitutional Court, the 13 petitioners said the law was unconstitutional, ambiguous and criminalised freedom of expression.<\/p>\n<p>Peter Arinaitwe, a lawyer representing one of the petitioners, Alternative Digitalk Limited, said the law\u2019s vague language could punish legitimate communications.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCitizens have a right to express themselves. It is inherent. It is a right given to us by nature,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kampala \u2013 Media groups asked Uganda\u2019s top court on Monday to scrap a new digital communications law which they said broke the constitution and crippled free speech. The \u201cComputer Misuse (Amendment) Act\u201d, which came into force last week, bans people from using a computer to send any information that might ridicule or degrade someone. It [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1226791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1226791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1226791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1226791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1226791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}