Browsing by Author "Samuel Kazibwe"

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Coping Into Self-censorship: Exploring Copying Strategies of Journalists Working in South Sudan
(Routledge, 2024) John Gai Alier; Samuel Kazibwe; Fred Kakooza
Local journalists in South Sudan have faced enormous threats from security groups, politicians and powerful individuals in the country. These threats have made the work of the press difficult. Despite the precarious security situation, some journalists have had the courage to continue working in South Sudan but in a manner that minimises risks. While studies have been carried out on war and conflict reporting around the world, little attention has been paid to coping strategies for local journalists in South Sudan. This study sought to investigate threats, coping strategies and motivational factors for local journalists working in the private media houses in the country. A qualitative approach with emphatic in-depth interviews was purposively used to obtain data from 21 respondents including reporters and editors from seven media houses in Juba. The findings show that journalists face threats including arbitrary arrests, intimidation and incarceration. Others have been beaten, tortured and in some cases murdered. To continue doing their professional jobs, journalists in private media institutions have applied well-planned coping strategies as a means of protection. These strategies include self-censorship, publishing of threats via mass media channels, use of institutional rules, self-consciousness and avoidance of sensitive stories, among others. The analysis of the data clearly demonstrated that motivational factors played a crucial role in the coping process at both institutional and individual levels because the journalists relied on journalistic principles as their basis to create context-relevant coping strategies.
Digital Safety: Perspectives from Women Journalists in Uganda
(Emerald Publishing Limited, 2025) Fred Kakooza; Samuel Kazibwe
The Internet has been recognised as a tool or space for universal access to information that fosters diversity and plurality of voices. Yet in this space, journalists have been a regular target of online attacks, intimidation, and bullying that threaten the diversity of voices and information. Women journalists face a double burden of risk based on their gender, such that the safety and security of women journalists require a paradigm shift from focusing on physical harm alone to considering digital and online security as well. This chapter explores Ugandan women journalists’ safety and security experiences in online environments and how women journalists negotiate their online media environments to deliver journalistic work. Discussed through the media affordance and objectification theoretical perspectives, the findings indicate that women journalists use digital spaces as an enabler to their profession but are challenged with threats, violations, and harassment online. We emphasise continuous training of women journalists on digital safety and security, including rallying media organisations to ensure online safety for women journalists.
Regulation, Self-censorship and Journalism Practice in Uganda: A Focus on 2013-2023
(African Journal of Communication, 2024-10-21) Samuel Kazibwe
The purpose of the study was to examine how media laws can potentially contribute to self-censorship among journalists in Uganda. Document analysis and in-depth interviews were employed to achieve the purpose of the research. In addition to the methods, coping theory was chosen to guide the study. Although there are many laws relating to the practice of journalism, the findings identified five major pieces of legislation as having the greatest effect on the profession. They include the Uganda Constitution (Uganda, 1995), Press and Journalist (Amendment) Act (Uganda, 2000), Penal Code (Amendment) Act (Uganda, 2007), Computer Misuse (Amendment) Act (Uganda, 2022) and Uganda Communications Commission (Amendment) Act, (Uganda, 2013). The findings revealed that the state and its agents have effectively employed these laws to instil fear among journalists in the period under study. It is evident that while some of the laws are direct in entrenching self-censorship, others are ambiguous enough to allow state actors to use them in creating an environment that forces journalists to censor themselves.