Order Cheap Ativan Online - Discount Online Pharmacy

Today, my blog is given over to former Reuters Fellow Bernard Tabaire of Uganda, who tells, in his own words, about the recent charges brought to him and three colleagues at the Sunday Monitor (a newspaper in Uganda of whom Tabaire is editor). "So this is to say Happy New Year. I am fine. But not quite. I was charged with two counts of defamation (formally known as “unlawful publication of a defamatory matter” on Tuesday. I am charged with four colleagues – three of them facing one count each. One is away on a National Endowment for Democracy fellowship in DC. I could be jailed for up to two years if found guilty. The first story is the basis of the trouble and it forms count one. The story that forms count two, which is basically a comment that followed the original piece, is not attached. We stand by our story. The only mistake we made was to say the report was sanctioned by the ministry of finance. It was not although the probe was quietly sanctioned by some technocrats in that ministry. So the IGG is not contesting the substance of the story but only the fact that the minister of finance denied ordering an inquiry into the IGG’s monetary affairs. We have all the documentation and we would relish a trial. Essentially, this is a civil matter. So why is the IGG criminalising it? This is a woman who refers to herself is “God’s warrior” out clean up Uganda’s decadent soul. So she believes the corrupt people she is running after are out to get her using the media. That is why she wants to teach us a lesson. She mounted a lot of pressure on the police and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions to expedite investigations and have us charged. She has spurned Parliament and now she is fighting journalists. She has blasted the judiciary too. Power has gone to her head. It does not help that President Museveni, who likes to trash his officials in public, publicly endorsed her twice last year. Now she feels she is on top of Mt Olympus. But one wonders how she will succeed in her otherwise noble work by alienating Parliament, the Media and the Judiciary – sectors that she badly needs if she is to succeed. In running the story, we wanted to show that the person fighting corruption needs to explain a few things. That is our obligation. Not to fight her. (I may explain one or two other points in a subsequent email). I was interrogated on Wednesday last week. Then called back on Monday this week. I went and was told to return on Tuesday at 9 a.m. Meanwhile, my colleague Joachim, who had been interrogated on Monday last week (Jan. 21), was called back to appear at 8 a.m. on the same Tuesday i.e. of this week. He recorded yet another statement. Then the police drove us to court the other end of town. At court, where we arrived at 11 a.m., we were held for three-and-a-half hours in the holding cell as we awaited court to reconvene at 2:30 p.m. Initially, we resisted entering the cell because we had driven ourselves to police in the first place. We argued that, as responsible citizens, we would be present at 2:30 because we had nothing to run away from but our pleas made no impression on the police at the court who insisted on handing us over to the prison warders. Once we were handed over, we were pushed into a long corridor and locked up. Then a guard came up to us and ordered that we enter the inner holding cell – actually the real cell. It was full of young men – most petty criminals (one stole a generator) – who had been brought in from jail to appear before the magistrates. The cell for women had only woman, a fact which reveals a thing or two about the profile of Kampala’s criminals. We resisted entering the inner cell and insisted on staying in the corridor that had a bench that we sat on. The guard then asked to take away our cell phones. We declined to hand them over. After a few minutes of tangling, he said we could keep them after all but in silent mode. Very understanding chap. And so we stayed caged until escorted into the dock. My first time in that little space (I will send you my picture in the dock!) We will be back in court on Wednesday for the magistrate to rule on whether to stay our trial until after the Constitutional Court has disposed of our challenge of the constitutionality of the law of defamation and related laws that impinge on freedom of expression and the press. Happy 2008 once again." Read the article that brought the charges, published in August of last year, here. The Monitor has published several follow-up articles, read them here, here, here and here. The International Federation of Journalists has condemned the actions of the Ugandan government.