SECTOR 4 4.7 Journalists and media houses have integrity and are not corrupt. Journalists are poorly paid. Furthermore, because of media houses’ “budgetary constraints”, journalists often lack money for transport and accommodation that they need to cover stories. “This makes journalists corrupt. And a big number of our journalists are corrupt. They take inducements and bribes.” “We as journalists have the responsibility to choose between being influenced and doing the right thing. That distinction is sometimes blurry under the economic circumstances.” For example, Parliament has opened a room from where journalists can file their stories. This has laid the journalists open to being influenced or paid-off by MPs. “Parliamentary reporters won’t always bring you the whole story.” However, the most poorly paid journalists are not the most corrupt. “Those who do the most damage are those sitting in air conditioned offices who can influence decisions. A reporter may be given a ride to a story and is selective about what information they include as a result. But this is not as damaging as an editor sitting on a corruption story because of political influence. This has become a problem because some sources do not want to provide confidential information because they suspect journalists are going to trade this information.” According to one panellist, editors now demand bribes in hard currency, starting at around USD15 000. “In court, a client comes to me and says a journalist has taken their son’s picture and wants UGX 1 million (USD 400) not to publish the picture.” This is the exception rather than the rule, and not all media coverage is shaped by corruption. It is more common for journalists to insist that news sources pay them allowances. “If you don’t give them transport ‘refund’ they really put up a fight.” This has created a climate of suspicion in which no one’s opinion is trusted. A panellist recalled writing a letter to a newspaper for publication, which challenged the paper’s angle on a corruption story. The newspaper refused to publish the story because the editor thought the panellist was paid to write the letter. “Your level of integrity determines your level of corruption. As a journalist I was told that I should be impartial, but what is facilitating corruption in my newsroom is that journalists have decided to start taking sides, to belong to certain political corridors. They are facilitated to run these stories. That is what is fuelling this wave of corruption.” 68 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER UGANDA 2012