afrol News, 30 April - Uganda's military intelligence personnel raided the headquarters of the privately-owned fortnightly and the home of its publisher in the capital Kampala, accusing the paper and its staff of possessing "seditious material."

Andrew Mwenda, a popular journalist who had been a victim of arrests and persecutions in the past, launched 'The Independent' few months ago. The publisher and two other journalists were arrested after the raid.

Mwenda was surrounded by five vehicles from the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence [CMI] as he was driving away from his home in Kololo, a neighbourhood of Kampala on Saturday. Led by Charles Kataratambi, the head of the media and political department of the Criminal Investigations Directorate [CID], the officials ordered him to get out of his car, handcuffed him and escorted back to his home where a search was carried out.

At the same time, a second group of military officers swooped on the headquarters of 'The Independent,' preventing the staff from leaving and searched the premises for "seditious material." They confiscated computers, CD-ROMs, video cassettes and files.

Mwenda was taken to 'The Independent' where his consulting editor Odobo Bichachi and journalist John Njoroge were also arrested. They were escorted to the CID headquarters before they were released on bail few hours later.

Joseph Kiggundu, a photographer working for the privately-owned 'Daily Monitor' newspaper was stopped, handcuffed and hit by the CMI agents as he attempted to take photos of the raid.

Mwenda said the “seditious material” sought by the CMI consisted of transcripts and recordings of interviews with people who had been tortured while held at government detention centres.

The Paris-based Reporters sans frontières has firmly condemned the raids in totality, arguing that "there is no reason why the Ugandan authorities should target an independent newspaper with such brutality." After all, the press freedom organisation said "sedition charges should be a thing of the past in a modern country."

By staff writer

© afrol News

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