Kabale – As Uganda joined the rest of the world to celebrate world press freedom day on Wednesday, journalists in Kabale have asked the media owners to improve their welfare to help boost their living conditions amidst the current inflation.
This years’ World Press Freedom Day was celebrated under the theme “Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights.”
This day commemoraed across the world acts as a reminder to governments about the need to respect their commitment to press freedom.
However, a section of journalists in Kabale said celebrating the World Press f
Freedom day serves no purpose since a number of journalists are either paid poorly or not paid at all.
Job Namanya, a journalist attached to the New vVsion, expressed the need by Parliament, and other stakeholders to address the welfare of journalists if media independence is to be achieved. He added that if journalists’ welfare is not prioritized, media practitioners will be prone to bribes.
Justus Tindyebwa; a media consultant at the Diocese of Kigezi radio also said that the need to improve the working condition of the journalists in the country is long overdue.
He complained that most employers have taken advantage of the absence of a law regulating the minimum wage to pay their workers meager salaries.
Samuel Amanya, a journalist working with Uganda Radio Network attributes the low-wage regime for journalists to the existence of exorbitant government taxes levied on media houses that makes it practically impossible to enhance salaries of their workers. He added the radio stations also incur a lot of maintenance costs like equipment maintenance and high cost of electricity which makes it difficult to save and pay the staff a decent wage.
Amanya also pointed out that as the world celebrates the World Press Freedom Day, it is worth noting that the safety of journalists is something worth improving as many face threats and intimidation by government officials and security agencies.
