Kennedy Lule
24 June 2003
Kampala — Members of Parliament yesterday asked the government to re-open the Catholic Church-owned radio station that was closed by the army and police on Sunday.
Radio Veritas FM in Soroti went off air on Sunday after security operatives and Soroti RDC, Mr Edward Masiga, stormed and searched its offices.
The station earned the wrath of the government for defying a minister's directive not to broadcast news about rebel attacks in the area.
But several MPs from the Teso sub-region yesterday said that the decision to close Radio Veritas should be reviewed.
"I was shocked by [the] closure. It is an attack on media freedom yet it is the same government which has been boasting about it," Mr Francis Epetait (Ngora) said.
Epetait said that the station was not being used to propagate the rebel Lord's Resistance Army propaganda but to alert the public about the dangers posed by the rebels.
"Veritas in Latin means truth. The radio station was basically doing that," he said
According to Mr Patrick Amuriat (Kumi), the station was still closed by yesterday afternoon.
He said that the radio was doing a good job in mobilising the population both against the war and for development.
"How will our people be informed when and where to run in case the LRA attacks?" Amuriat wondered.
The Soroti woman MP, Ms Alice Alaso, said that closing the radio would be like killing a messenger who delivers a bad message. (See editorial).
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