SECTOR 1 “Journalism – both print and broadcast – is evolving, and with citizen journalism, everyone is a potential reporter. The best journalists aren’t always those that have qualifications.” A recent attempt to restrict media practice saw parliament contemplating imposing a rule on the media, that would limit the period of time that parliamentary reporters would be allowed to cover parliament to five years. The decision to look into this “came down to a relationship between a journalist and an MP. The MP, who had felt slighted by reportage by the said journalist, argued that people who have been part of parliament for too long should be cleared out. The media houses sat with the Speaker and negotiated it out, and eventually Parliament dropped it,” noted one of the panellists. However, another panellist pointed out that, “Journalists without degrees were thrown out of Parliament a few weeks after our meeting. They were asked to go and upgrade their education level.” Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 3.0 (2012 = n/a; 2010 = n/a; 2007 = n/a) 1.4 The government makes every effort to honour regional and international instruments on freedom of expression and freedom of the media. The Ugandan government has signed a number of regional and international conventions, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance and the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights (ICPR). The country is up to date on its reports for the African Charter, but is not up to speed on its reporting for the ICPR. In line with some of its international commitments, Sweden raised the issue of freedom of expression in Uganda, and placed pressure on the government to amend all laws that are contrary to this right. These include, for example, The Public Order and Management Act, The Anti-Terror Act, The UCC Act, The NGO Act, and others. “It is good that Uganda accepted to amend.” 18 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER UGANDA 2016