The Brilliant press secretary to Ugandan president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni last week repeated his argument that most Ugandan journalists are actually political activists disguised in the media.

John Tamale Mirundi, who is a former journalist known for his critical view of the Buganda kingdom said, “many of these journalists we have in our media houses are political activists. They are associated with political parties that are opposed to government and in many cases they use their roles to discredit the NRM and president Museveni.”

Speaking to journalist in Kampala last friday after a cabinet meeting allowed the reopening of the closed Buganda kingdom Radio station CBS and Radion Suubi, Tamale pointed out that government would not allow journalists to discredit its progress in the name of press freedom.

However asked to point out the journalists who were politicians in the media´s skin, Tamale blatantly said there were far too many of them (Journalists)and that government would always deal with them.
Facing pressure from the journalists to clarify wether what he was saying meant warning to journalist, Tamale, himself a journalist said that he was cautioning journlists to desist from politics.
He further alleged that government was aware of journlists who were under the payroll of opposition groups and are busy discrediting government.

The vocal presidential press secretary said that the Monitor Publication, the Weekly Message (His former employers, the Weekly Observer, The Independent Publications and even the government managed Newvision and several radio and TV stations in the country employed journalists who have become very political.
Asked to name atleast one journalist who was a politician, Tamale pointed fingures at The Weekly Observer´s Political Editor Ibrahim Ssemuju whom he described as belonging to the Forum For the Democratic Change (FDC) yet still pretents to be a journalist.
He also pointed at his former employers, The Weekly Message and former editor Moses Okile Ebokorait, who has sofar fled the country after a failed attempt by the CMI to imprison him and also the Independent Publication´s Andrew Mwenda who remains defiant to the NRM intimidation and torture tactics.

He also warned that if the Monitor publications does not control its content and so should other media house, government would not hesiate closing them down like it did with Suubi and CBS. Asked about the fate of Radio One talk show host Robert Kalundi Serumaga, who was charged with sedition after his September incarceration, Tamale said that Serumaga was to blame for his own falts. “He blatantly attacked the personality of the president on several occasion and all his collegues such as Ssemuju, Ebokorait, Mwenda, Timothy Kalyegira, Mwanguhya Mpagi and many others do but the president s linient.”

He then added that the president should not be taken for granted because he is the first citizen who deserves some respect.
Conversely, Radio One talk show host Robert Kalundi Serumaga, on 14 October had his case referred to the Constitutional Court for interpretation.

Serumaga who spent four days in police custody following the riots that rocked Kampala and central Uganda 11-14 September, says his rights were abused as he was detained for more than the 48 mandatory hours and wants the Constitutional Court to explain whether the trial is still fair. He is represented by lawyer David Mpanga.

Sserumaga is accused by the state of attacking the person of the president during a television show on September 11 and is facing six counts of sedition. The Magistrate declined to proceed with the case, pending the hearing and determination of another case by journalist and editor of the Independent magazine, Andrew Mwenda, who has petitioned the Attorney General.

Mwenda has challenged some sections of the Penal Code Act on sedition, on which Serumaga is being charged and unless the case is resolved, no sedition case can be dispensed with. The magistrate adjourned the case to April 8, 2010.

Serumaga was whisked away by security men (on 11 September 2009) as he stepped out of the WBS television studio, where he had appeared as one of the discussants on the Kibazo show on Friday. The talk show has since been suspended by the Media Council, just like other phone-ins and talk shows.

He was beaten up before being bundled into a car boot and rushed to an unknown destination. In the courts, he appeared before magistrate John Wekesa where he was charged “with intention to bring hatred, contempt and disaffection against the person of the president”.