Mpigi, 07th/April/2014; Police in Mpigi district rescued a Vision Group journalist from three angry teachers of Lowell Girls’ School who mobbed him as he was covering a story of a fire break out at http://t.co/Cads8f79dAthe school on Saturday night, 05th/April/2014. The teachers were preventing the journalist from reporting about a fire outbreak in the school which is located at Nakirebe village, in Kiringete Sub-county, Mpigi district.
Andrew Mugonza, a journalist with Bukedde television was filming the Director of the school while he addressed students immediately after the fire had been put out by the police, when a school teacher, whose names we have not readily established, confronted him and ordered him to stop the recording.
“A teacher who was seated next to the director confronted me as I was recording, then he ordered me to stop. He tried to grab my camera, when I resisted, he wrestled me down and we fell into the students. He was joined by two other male teachers, but the police acted in time to rescue me. My camera lens was damaged in the scuffle which lasted about two minutes.” Mugonza told HRNJ-Uganda in an interview.
An officer at Mpigi Police station, Mujuni Micheal told HRNJ-Uganda that they rescued Mugonza, “A teacher who was seated next to the school Director confronted the journalist at night when he aimed a video camera towards the Director. I saw him pushing Mugonza. That’s I and another police officer intervened and asked him why he was pushing the journalist. When we blocked him, two other male teachers confronted us asking why we were blocking their colleague. They kept following us protesting against our act of blocking their colleague.”
The journalist however is yet to open up a complaint against the said teachers.
HRNJ-Uganda commends the police in Mpigi for moving fast to rescue the journalist. The police should investigate the conduct of the said teachers and take appropriate measures.
