Jinja 19th/September/2015; Shamshad Naluggya, a Bukedde TV journalist, was yesterday assaulted by the Njeru Town Council Senior Community Development Officer, Joyce Guleeta, accusing her of recording a meeting without her knowledge.
Naluggya had gone to cover a meeting that had been called to follow up a complaint filed by a group of disadvantaged students who allege that their care taker had stopped paying their school fees yet she was still receiving the money from the donors.
“I was recording the meeting, when Joyce said, who is that person recording? I replied that I am a journalist but before I completed the statement she moved out of her seat, grabbed me by the collar of my shirt, pushed me against the wall and scratched my neck. She pushed me out of the office and called other people who helped her to take me in another room demanding for the recording,” Naluggya told HRNJ-Uganda today.
A social civil activist who was part of the meeting, Kevin Richard Kalule, who witnessed the events unfolding, told HRNJ that “Sham was strangled, beaten and her camera grabbed by the Senior Community Development Officer of Njeru Town Council as she asked her ‘why are you recording me I am a social worker.’ Her upper button of the shirt fell off during the scuffle. They held her for more than 20 minutes in the room before being set free. Sham was really embarrassed.”
However, Joyce Guleeta when asked about the incident she advised HRNJ to train young journalists to be professional. “When I asked her who are you? she just run away. I requested my colleagues to bring her back to my office, I instructed one officer to get the recording from her.”
Naluggya said she was taken by a man in a room where she was ordered to produce the recordings. The man searched the camera but could not find the recordings.
