By Priscilla Owomugisha,
NATIONAL
The Human Rights Network for Journalists has threatened to seek court redress to the signed Computer Misuse Act, 2022 law.
Robert Ssempala, the Executive Director of the network has described the signing into law of the computer misuse bill by the president as very “sad and unfortunate”
On Thursday, president Yoweri Museveni assented to the Computer Misuse Amendment Bill into an Act. However, the law since it’s tabling as a bill by the Kampala Central Member of Parliament, Mouhammed Nsereeko was outrightly rejected by human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers and opposition politicians.
Ssempala says that this law is a great blow to investigative and citizen journalism, vowing to have it challenged in the courts of law.
“We are sure to go to the Constitutional Court to challenge the law. HRNJ-Uganda was already in court challenging Sections 24 and 25 which introduce the offenses of offensive communication and cyber harassment which have severally been used against journalists and to gag investigative journalism. It’s sad that the ICT Committee and Parliament ignored the majority submissions against the Bill,” HRNJ-U said
According to law, a person found guilty of recording another person’s voice or video without authorized access to personal information will be fined Shs10 million or imprisoned for a term not exceeding 10 years or both.
