Joyce Namugambe
Provided the challenges that have been continuously faced by Ugandans in accessing information online, this has not stopped the country to celebrate the 4th International day for Universal Access to information 2023, which is celebrated every year on 28 September.
This day, being celebrated under the theme “The importance of the online space for access to information, ensuring Universal access in a digital Era, has been celebrated at the Uganda institute of information and communications technology in Nakawa.
While representing the chief guest who is the minister of ICT and national guidance, the representative from the same ministry, Kakonge Kamburage appreciated civil society organizations for bringing out information that concern people and awaken the authorities to take action, thereby changing people’s lives.
He called upon the public to come out and disseminate information through all platforms to transform the lives of the people in the society for the benefit of their socio economic lives, making access to information online useful.
On behalf of the Executive director of Africa freedom of information centre, the monitoring and evaluation coordinator in AFIC Charity Komujjurizi noted that access to information is aright and freedom to every individual to enjoy.
She expressed that according to AFIC research, over 33 million citizens in the Uganda lack access to internet due to the fact that they live in far to reach areas or they don’t even have gadgets to help them connect to the internet. She noted that such people miss a lot of information such as employment opportunities, development programs, messages from their leaders, health information, and educative information among others.
Media and communications consultant from the Makerere department of journalism John Baptist Imokola expressed concern over the challenges that are continuously affecting people’s access to the internet which are not addressed such as Facebook shut down and called on authorities to solve such challenges.
The chairman for the equal opportunities commission Hajati Sophia Jjuuko noted that information should be accessible to all categories of people such as translating it to different local languages, people in rural areas, people in hard to reach areas, people who never went to school, people with disabilities among other groups so that access to information is made easy.
She added that information should be made affordable to all people so that every individual can be able to access it, noting that making it a priority in government budgets will help to solve some of the challenges. She therefore called upon the public to join equal opportunities commission to look at different sectors and how to plan for space in the budgets of these sectors to contribute to the wellbeing of every Ugandan.
Media communications consultant at Makerere University Department of Journalism John Baptist Imokora expressed concern, over the restriction and unfair regulations on online platforms that abuse the rights of access to information. He therefore appealed to the public to reflect and fight for the rights to information through restrictive regulations denying them chance to get information.
The representative from the Uganda Human rights commission Chrispine Kaheru read the speech on behalf of the commission chairperson, noting that lack of access to information affects people from accessing useful information in life. She cited the period during the Covid 19 Lockdown where Kampala pupils and students got a chance to have online classes while village pupils and students didn’t get the chance due to lack of access to internet. Additionally, some Kampala students who could not afford internet costs still missed the chance to have online classes.
In his own words, Chris Kaheru stressed that there is a need to balance freedom to access information with the right to privacy through striking reasonable platforms between access to information and privacy in the society.
The Executive director of Human rights network for journalists Robert Sempala expressed concern over the unfair treatment of journalists because of bringing information to the public which is one way of denying the society chance to be given access to information. Additionally, he noted that people in the country are continuously denied chance to access information online, such as through the Facebook platform which was blocked since 2021.
These celebrations were organized by Africa Freedom of information centre with Makerere University Department of Journalism, in partnership with ministry of ICT and national guidance, and Twaweza.
