Minister Nabakooba:"We shall engage media owners over poor pay of journalists"

The minister of ICT and National Guidance, Judith Nabakooba, has said that her ministry is going to engage the media owners to discuss on how to improve on the welfare of journalists in the country.

She said journalists are the eyes of the public therefore they need to be well paid.

Nabakooba was on Sunday addressing the media on the occasion to mark International Press Freedom Day, marked without a formal function this year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"We got a number of complaints from the media practitioners especially people who go to the field complaining about little pay and poor welfare but as a ministry we are going to engage the respective organisations and see how to forge a way forward,"she said.

She pledged to empower the various journalists bodies in order to amend some of the outdated laws.

"As a ministry, we have the media and broadcasting councils, we want to see how we can energize them but also looking at the laws in place, some of the laws are a bit old and things have changed overtime. We need to see how we can probably make amendments," she noted.

She commended the media for the spirited coverage of Covid-19 pandemic.

"Journalists wake up in the morning on a daily basis to report about the Covid-19 pandemic amongst the fear on how they are supposed to be safe. I therefore want to thank all media houses who have chosen to work beyond these fears and you have kept the public well informed,"she said.

She however urged the journalist to desist from sharing false information about Covid-19.