The association alleged that the journalists were detained as Major Echeru escorted Gen. Birungi and that security personnel confiscated their work equipment, including mobile phones and cameras.
The Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) has condemned the detention of three journalists by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) at Makindye Military Barracks, describing the arrests as an attack on press freedom and demanding their immediate and unconditional release.
In a statement issued on Monday, UJA identified the detained journalists as Judith Kukunda of Uganda Radio Network (URN), Christine Nabatanzi of Radio Simba and Margaret Zalwango of Vision Group.
According to the association, the journalists were arrested while covering the scheduled court proceedings involving Gen. James Birungi at the General Court Martial. UJA said the trio was accused of accessing the Court Martial premises without clearance on the orders of Major Echeru, the Officer Commanding (OC) Prisons at Makindye Military Barracks.
The association alleged that the journalists were detained as Major Echeru escorted Gen. Birungi and that security personnel confiscated their work equipment, including mobile phones and cameras.
UJA further said it had received information indicating that the three journalists were expected to be transferred to the UPDF’s Special Investigations Bureau for further handling following the incident.
The journalists’ body maintained that journalism is a lawful profession protected under Articles 29, 41 and 42(2) of the 1995 Constitution of Uganda, arguing that media practitioners should not be subjected to harassment or treated as criminals while carrying out their professional duties.
UJA called for the immediate and unconditional release of Kukunda, Nabatanzi and Zalwango, as well as the return of all their confiscated work equipment.
The UPDF had not yet issued an official statement on the incident by the time of publication.