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Kampala: Ugandan media teams and rights activists on Monday filed a court docket problem to a controversial new internet legislation that they protest is geared toward curbing free speech and quashing dissent.
A complete of 13 petitioners, together with a web-based TV station, lodged the criticism with the Constitutional Courtroom over the laws, which was signed into legislation by veteran President Yoweri Museveni final week.
The Computer Misuse (Amendment) Act “threatens freedom of expression and targets these with divergent views”, one of many petitioners, Norman Tumuhimbise, instructed AFP.
Tumuhimbise works for Digital TV, which in March this 12 months was raided by safety brokers. 9 of its workers together with Tumuhimbise had been arrested and charged with pc misuse and spreading false data.
In line with the petition, the federal government has been given seven days to file a defence however it’s not recognized when any hearings within the case would start.
Amnesty International has known as for the “draconian” legislation to be scrapped, warning that it was designed to “intentionally goal critics of presidency and will probably be used to silence dissent and forestall folks from talking out”.
“This piece of laws threatens the precise to freedom of expression on-line, together with the precise to obtain and impart data, on the pretext of outlawing unsolicited, false, malicious, hateful, and unwarranted data,” mentioned Amnesty‘s director for East and Southern Africa, Muleya Mwananyanda.
Uganda has seen a sequence of crackdowns on these against Museveni’s rule, significantly across the 2021 election, with journalists attacked, legal professionals jailed, vote screens prosecuted and opposition leaders violently muzzled.
– ‘Stand up and defend rights’ – Opposition chief Bobi Wine, who unsuccessfully challenged the president in 2021 and has usually been focused by safety forces, mentioned the adoption of the legislation was not stunning.
“Museveni is conscious he’s unpopular and he’s placing such legal guidelines to muzzle the inhabitants,” he instructed AFP.
“This time folks ought to stand up and defend their rights as a result of the civil house is being restricted repeatedly.”
Amnesty famous that the brand new laws contained some helpful provisions akin to proper to privateness and accountable protection of kids however “it introduces punitive penalties for anybody accused of so-called hate speech”.
Individuals convicted below the legislation are barred from holding public workplace for 10 years, which Amnesty warned was a approach of reinforcing state management over on-line freedom of expression, together with by political opposition teams.
Offenders additionally face fines of as much as 15 million Ugandan shillings (about $3,900) and jail phrases of as much as seven years.
“Ugandans should have the ability to train their proper to freedom of expression with out concern of being focused by the prison justice system,” Mwananyanda mentioned within the Amnesty assertion issued on Friday.
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