KAMPALA – Canadian based international media house CBC News has said that Ugandan government is already avoiding critical observation and examination of January election by foreign journalists.
“We were deported Friday even though we had Official media credentials,” said CBC News European Correspondent Margaret Evans in a tweet.
This is after the government deporting two foreign journalists who were intending to cover events of the 2021 general elections for CBC News.
In the same tweet, Margaret says thier journalists Lily Martin and J.F Bisson were detained for hours before they were ordered out of Uganda on Friday.
“Here @lily_martin & @JF_BISSON 10 hours into detention before being put on a plane,” she said.
One of the two journalists, Lily Martin said that the pair held official press credentials to carry out their trade in the country and their deportations suffocates foreign scrutiny of the upcoming 2021 general elections.
However, Ofwono Opondo, the government spokesperson said that Uganda does not need any foreign scrutiny into its internal matters.
“Do we really need you to scrutinize our electoral process to qualify as credible? Uganda reserves the right to admit foreign persons including journalists. Good stay where you are,” Opondo said.
Recently, the European Union accused government of Uganda of not inviting them to observe the 2021 elections.
The New Vision of 2 November 2020 and the Daily Monitor of 21 November 2020 carried stories quoting the European Union Head of Delegation, Amb. Attilio Pacifici, as saying that the EU was not invited to observe the 2021 Elections.
However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed concern and regret about the “misleading remarks” attributed to the EU Representative.
It said in a statement issued oo November 23, 2020, that it twice extended an invitation to all diplomatic missions and international organizations accredited to Uganda and interested in observing the 2021 elections. “The EU is one of those Missions,” it said.
