SSP Donald Muhwezi, the Community Liaison Officer for the Kampala Metropolitan Area, has said that not all information is suitable for publication in public media outlets, claiming that the information provided by police is what the public needs to know.
He made this statement while officiating the celebrations of International Day for Universal Access to Information that took place on September 26, 2024, at the Makerere University CEDAT Auditorium.
SSP Muhwezi stated that the law of Information Access in the country is a tricky one, stating that the law contradicts itself on different Acts which makes the police withhold some information from the public.
“The Access to Information Act 2005 gives an individual a right to access public information held by public institutions, which includes the police, but also the Personal Data Protection and Privacy Act 2019 denies the police from fully giving out all information to the media. These two contradict each other, so we have to find a way of working together,” he revealed.
SSP Muhwezi weighed on journalists being harassed in the field by the police and not being able to access information in certain places.
“The problem with journalists is that they want full information, and yet police work is work in progress; for instance, if we arrest a culprit, he or she is sent to court, and from there I won’t have the information needed. On journalist harassment, our work as police is to protect all Ugandans and their property, including the journalists,” he added.
This followed journalists complaints about the refusal of police to provide certain information to the media and only giving them information they want to be published in the media. A number of journalists also complained about continued harassment in their field of work by the men in uniform.
