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Uganda:
Supreme Court strikes out law criminalising false news
Article
19
February
12, 2004
Named after Article
19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 works worldwide
to combat censorship by promoting freedom of expression and access to
official information.
The Ugandan Supreme
Court yesterday declared that the offence of 'publishing false news' was
incompatible with the right to freedom of expression. This means that
journalists in Uganda can no longer be charged with 'publication of false
news'.
Justice Joseph Mulenga,
delivering the lead judgement, ruled that the right to freedom of expression
protects not only that which can be proven to be true. He warned that
the offence dated from colonial times and that the only reason why it
was still on the books was because Parliament had not yet gotten around
to reforming the law. He stressed that the prohibition of false news served
no meaningful purpose. On the contrary, it was a vaguely formulated offence,
open to misinterpretation and abuse on political grounds, that could not
be reconciled with basic democratic principles and the right to freedom
of expression.
The ruling has important
consequences not only for the Ugandan media, who longer need to fear being
prosecuted for publishing 'false news', but worldwide as well. The prohibition
of publishing 'false news' is still on the books in a number of countries,
including Malaysia, Sudan, Togo and Tunisia, to name but a few. The robust
opinion of the Ugandan Supreme Court, together with previous similar judgements
by courts in Canada and Zimbabwe, adds to the growing body of opinion
that such laws are fundamentally illegitimate and must be struck out.
1. For further information,
contact Peter Noorlander, Legal Officer, ARTICLE 19, at +44 20 7278 9292,
email: peter@article19.org.
2. The Canadian Supreme Court and the Zimbabwe Supreme court have both
recently rules the offence of 'publishing false news' to be unconstitutional:
see R v. Zundel and Chavunduka and Choto v. Minister of Home Affairs,
respectively. summaries of both cases can be found on
the ARTICLE website: http://www.article19.org, under Handbook / cases.
3. A summary of the judgment of the Ugandan Supreme Court can be found
on
the ARTICLE website: http://www.article19.org, under Handbook / cases.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
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