Media working group launched amidst demands for better pay for journalists
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The Minister for ICT and National Guidance,Judith Nabakooba yesterday officiated the launch of the Uganda Media Sector Working Group (UMSWG), a body that brings together all media associations to among others address poor remuneration of journalists
This follows months of acrimony between the media and state agencies over the quality of output and it is planned as a platform for dialogue, monitoring effective regulation and development of the media industry.
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UMSWG was formally initiated in May 2020 as a multi-stakeholder platform to create dialogue within the media industry and to address protracted issues that bedevil it.
These include diminishing professionalism, media freedom and accountability to the public, ineffective regulation and out-of-date legal framework, growing personal risks to journalism practitioners, and challenging economic environment.
The platform emerged out of the realisation that the media sector is fractured and lacks a uniform voice to articulate its issues to the Government and to the public.
The UMSWG will therefore initiate new and support long-standing efforts to build a media industry that is more professional, accountable, and trusted by the public. This will enhance citizens’ rights and the media’s role in the development of Uganda.
According to Nabakooba,the group will come up with means of ending conflicts between entities particularly security and media practitioners while in the line of their duties.
"The issues of professionalism, the issues of accountability and the issues of self regulations and we believe that this being a platform with it's members from a number of institutions, it's going to help us,"she said.
Nabakooba noted that this will also be a platform for resolving pressing issues that affect journalists including their welfare.
"The clashes between journalists are not on the daily basis.They happen once in a while and I believe that when we sit, discuss and dialogue over these issues,we can come up with lasting solutions,"she said.
