A Ugandan Magistrates Court in Kampala dismissed sedition charges against
former radio presenter Robert Kalundi Serumaga, who faced six counts of
sedition for making anti-President statements during the September 2009
Kampala riots. The dismissal of the charges marks an improvement in the
freedom of expression situation in the country. The court ruling comes on the
heels of a ground-breaking decision passed by the Constitutional Court in
August 2010 which abolished criminal sedition, thereby ensuring Uganda’s
compliance with its international human rights obligations.
ARTICLE 19 welcomes these recent developments in Uganda, as the organisation
believes that sedition, criminal defamation and other insult laws are premised on the
incorrect hypothesis that it is wrong to pass judgment on public figures.
The abolishment of criminal sedition in Uganda not only has positive consequences
for the Ugandan media, opposition parties’ candidates and human rights defenders –
who no longer need to fear being prosecuted – but could also potentially extend its
influence regionally. Sedition laws are enforced in the majority of African countries.
ARTICLE 19 is calling on all African countries to abolish sedition laws and criminal
defamation in general.
“We welcome Uganda’s abolishment of sedition, as it sets a new chapter for the
country marked by its compliance with its international human rights obligations
including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African
Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, both of which Uganda signed and ratified,”
says Dr Agnes Callamard, Executive Director of ARTICLE 19.
“The abolishment also brings home the force of the Table Mountain Declaration on
Abolishing Insult Laws in Africa and the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of
Expression in Africa,” continued Callamard.
There are currently 10 journalists who collectively face some 22 sedition charges,
some of which have been accumulated since 2005. The strong opinion of the courts in
Uganda adds to a clear voice of free speech organisations that such laws provide
illegitimate limitations to freedom of expression and must be struck out.