Ugandan journalists charged

Senior reporter Angelo Izama and editor Henry Ochieng, both from the Sunday Monitor news magazine, have been released on bail of around US$50 pending trial on 25 February, according to the international press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists.

Both journalists have been summoned for interrogations by the police several times in the past three weeks. The charges relate to an opinion column by Izama published on 20 December 2009 that compared the Ugandan government to that of the Philippines under former leader Ferdinand Marcos. The column discussed the risk of political violence ahead of next year's general elections, in which Museveni is expected to seek a fourth term.