By Ivan Kimuli Kigozi
As a practicing and passionate journalist, I scoff at anyone who raises a hand on a journalist especially while on duty. However, on the incidents as reported by the media between reporters in Masaka and the National Unity Platform, the issue is bigger than the alleged assault.
Our trouble as an industry began when “we” started embracing Partisan Journalism reporting fueled by the Partisan bosses who own the entities that we work for.
Many are open supporters of these political parties and it is widely noticeable by the audience in the way media houses package their news and slowly it is influencing and eating up many newsrooms, with this if we are not careful it will attract violence against us as journalists, because now we are direct participants and this is very visible in the opinion we openly give on our social media platforms and in the public which are biased and subjective.
With this we will be participating in active politics, which is characterized by violence, hate propaganda. This explains the violence against us, because passionate supporters on both sides can’t differentiate between a Journalist and an activist who is using Journalism as a shield to advance personal interests.
Therefore as we continue working with politicians we emotionally get involved and attached to them and if it prolongs, you start seeing only the good and not the bad about a Particular Politician.
In the end Journalism will lose its authority and purpose, part of the big loss that we will face is the objective news presentation.
Like Kyle Roberts, President of Smart Media Group said “Politics is an emotional game and the media is an emotional game that is why it is the preferred battle ground”
Now the only hope we have is to go back to the basics of journalism, including; truthfulness”, “accuracy”, and “objectivity”.
I therefore encourage Journalists to maintain a degree of detachment from the religions and political groups in order to minimize potential biases in their reporting which are slowly attracting violence against us. As for the incident in Masaka, the truth should prevail.
Ivan Kimuli Kigozi, the author is a Journalist and Media Trainer
