The mockery swearing in of Kiza Besigye as the President of Uganda shows how greed for power can make many people go against the national constitution.
according to the constitution of Uganda,

34. (1) There shall be a Supreme Head and Commander in Chief of Uganda who shall be known as the President of Uganda and who is referred to in this Constitution as the President.

(2) The President shall, subject to the provisions of section 123 of this Constitution, take precedence over all persons in Uganda and shall not be liable to any proceedings whatsoever in any court.

(3) The President shall be exempt from direct personal taxation and no property held by him in his personal capacity shall be compulsorily acquired or compulsorily taken possession of.

(4) The President shall receive such salary and allowances, and on retirement such pension, gratuity or other allowance, as may be prescribed by Parliament.

(5) The salary and allowances payable to the President and any pension, gratuity or other allowance payable to him on retirement shall be a charge on the Consolidated Fund.

(6) Before assuming office the President shall take and subscribe the oath of allegiance and such other oath (if any) as Parliament may prescribe.

35. (1) There shall be a Vice President of Uganda (referred to in this Constitution as the Vice President) who shall perform the functions and have the privileges of the President (luring any period when

(a) the President is absent from Uganda or is for any reason unable to perform the functions of his office; or

(b) the office' of the President is vacant.

(2) The Vice President shall receive such salary and allowances, and on retirement such pension, gratuity or other allowances, as may be prescribed by Parliament.

(3) The salary and allowances payable to the Vice President and any pension, gratuity or other allowance payable to him on retirement shall be a charge on the Consolidated Fund.

(4) During any period when the Vice President is required by subsection (1) of this section to perform the functions of the President and either

(a) the Vice President is unable to do so by reason of absence from Uganda or for any other cause; or

(b) the office of the Vice President is vacant,

those functions shall be performed by the Chief Justice.

(5) A person required by this section to perform the functions of the President shall before commencing to perform those functions take and subscribe the oath of allegiance and such other oath (if any) as Parliament may prescribe.

36. (1) Subject to the provisions of this section, the President and the Vice President shall be elected in accordance with such procedure as may be prescribed by Parliament from among the Rulers of the Federal States and the constitutional heads of the Districts by the members of the National Assembly for a term of five years.

(2) the term of office for which the Vice President is elected under subsection (1) of this section shall be deemed to expire at the same time as the term of office for which the President is elected under that subsection expires.

(3) The President or the Vice President may at any time be removed from office by a resolution of the National Assembly which is moved either

(a) by the Prime Minister; or

(b) by a member of the Assembly other than the Prime Minister who satisfies the Speaker that not less than one-half of all the members of the Assembly have signified in writing an intention to vote in support of the resolution,

and which is supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds of all the members of the Assembly.

(4) Where a vacancy occurs in the office of the President or the Vice President otherwise than by reason of the expiry of the term for which the holder of the office was elected, the person elected to fill the vacancy shall hold office for the remainder of that term, and not for a term of five years.

(5) The President or the Vice President may at any time resign his office by writing under his hand and addressed to the Prime Minister.

(6) A person who has vacated the office of the President or the Vice President may be elected or re-elected to either of those officers, if qualified, in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.

A recent comment about Uganda encouraged me to include a separate entry rather than just a reply.

According to my information, Uganda became semi-presidential in 2005 following a constitutional amendment. However, it is clearly one of those cases that is at the cusp of the definition. Please correct me if I have interpreted the constitutional situation in Uganda inaccurately.

The current constitution of Uganda dates back to 1995. There is provision for the direct election of the president (Art. 103) for a fixed term (Arts. 105 and 107). In the 1995 version, there was mention of individual ministerial responsibility to parliament, but not collective cabinet responsibility (Art. 118). Also, there was no mention of a prime minister. Instead, there was mention of a vice-president (Art. 108). So, in 1995 the Ugandan constitution was clearly presidential.

In 2005 The Constitution (Amendment) Act was passed. It changed many articles of the constitution.

Article 108A (1) now reads: “(1) There shall be a Prime Minister who shall be appointed by the President with the approval of Parliament by simple majority from among members of Parliament or persons qualified to be elected members of Parliament.

Thus, in theory at least, parliament could withhold its support of the president’s choice of prime minister.

Article 108A (3) reads: “(3) The Prime Minister shall, in the performance of his or her functions, be individually accountable to the President and collectively responsible for any decision made by the Cabinet.”

In 2005 The Constitution (Amendment) Act was passed. It changed many articles of the constitution.

Article 108A (1) now reads: “(1) There shall be a Prime Minister who shall be appointed by the President with the approval of Parliament by simple majority from among members of Parliament or persons qualified to be elected members of Parliament.

Thus, in theory at least, parliament could withhold its support of the president’s choice of prime minister.

Article 108A (3) reads: “(3) The Prime Minister shall, in the performance of his or her functions, be individually accountable to the President and collectively responsible for any decision made by the Cabinet.”
with these Kiza Claiming that elections were rigged should follow the right track that is the court process.

Emerging trends in news dissemination

After gathering news and editing, journalists have the responsibility of making it available to the audience and this is news dissemination. There are various emerging trends in news dissemination but first its better to understand how it was done before.
For print media, traditional news papers did not have any colors except black and white for both pictures and texts. This was hectic especially when printing photographs from film cameras, it involved  chemical route and films were not supposed to be exposed to light because it would affect them causing picture distortion.
 Digital technologies such as quark have helped to improve newspaper production and revolutionize news presentation for newspapers where texts and pictures are well composed, colored and presentable to the readers. It has also increased speed and saving time thus journalists are able to beat time to avoid presenting stale news.
In radio, news dissemination was done in only one radio station, voice of Kenya which is KBC today. The frequency was amplitude modulation AM, which was greatly affected by weather and mountains causing voice distortion. Presenters used handwritten scripts to present news and actualities were recorded by analogue recorders which sometimes would not play due to the problem of wear and tear.
Today news dissemination in radio is done using digital mechanisms such as digital recorders for actualities and digital software such as adobe audition with use of computers and sound boosts which have improved news presentation practice.
There are various radio stations with frequent modulation FM signals which are heard loud and clear by the audience such as Kameme radio, radio Citizen, Classic 105 among others. The audience are also given opportunity to send comments during news presentation via social media and SMS lines which has promoted journalists-audience interaction.
News dissemination in TV was also done using black and white images and it was only one TV station-KBC. The house style of this station was that each news bulletin would start by the story of the then President Daniel Arap Moi since it was a government station. It didn't matter what Moi has done but his story should come first.
News anchors read scripts manually with no autocues and cameras were analogue which used tapes and produced black and white video footages.
Today news presentation in TV is done in several TV stations such as NTV, KTN which was the first private TV station among others. These stations use digital signals to disseminate news and audience are able to get clear, crispier and colored pictures.
Presenters use autocues to disseminate news and cameras are digital with  high definition(HD) formats producing clear colored images to the audience.
Audience are also given chance to interact with news presentation where they send comments via social media and SMS lines where these comments are read and published on air. This has improved audience gratification thus developing audience loyalty to the very station where their comments are read and published.
Online Journalism is another major emerging trend in news dissemination. Social media platforms such as twitter, facebook, instagram among others are used by journalists to disseminate news to the audience who are given the respective accounts to log on and get news.
Also world wide web(www) is another internet platform used by journalists to disseminate news. Audience are supposed to just click the website of various media stations and get the news online. Internet also provide links where readers can get background information concerning any news item. 

News gathering process

News gathering process traditionally involves  calling out an editorial meeting for press briefing. This is where reporters are given roles that they will play in various fields, camera men are assigned duties and each person is informed and briefed of what they will cover in the day.
In the field reporters and their camera men go to the sources and start accumulating information. This can be done through observation while writing and recording, listening to what people say for example if it is a meeting, interviewing sources and eye witnesses and being credible enough to have actualities in your news items.
Reporters after gathering news they edit it themselves before taking it to the chief editor in the news room. Here they accumulate pictures, videos and actualities of what was happening in the field, they then take it to the chief editor for verification which includes checking for legalities and checking for errors and mistakes of any kind before publishing or sending it on air.
Due to development in technology, news gathering process has drastically changed. If we narrow down to various media platforms, that is, print media, radio and TV and online journalism, we shall see that today, news gathering process is not as before.

 

 In print media, there is use of digital cameras in the field which can capture very good colored still images and store them in the memory cards. Before, photographers used analogue cameras which involved chemical route in production of photographs. This was hectic and caused delays in picture production where they produced black and white images which were not very clear when published on news papers.
Also in print media, reporters use laptops to write news where they can edit and sometimes computers are able to detect errors and correct them automatically. They can send the news to the editor online for further editing while still in the field. In the editorial room there is use of software that quickens and revolutionizes editorial work in newspaper production. This has improved newspaper work where use of colored texts, graphics and pictures has become so interesting even to the readers. Traditionally everything was done manually and it led to poor production process.
In broadcast media, there is use of digital tools in news gathering process. These includes, digital recorders for radio, digital cameras for TV and digital editing programs such as adobe premier pro and adobe audition.
Radio reporters use portable digital recorders in gathering news and they store the information in memory cards so as to take to the editor for editorial work. Analogue recorders that were used before had some voice distortion and the audio cassettes had an element of wear and tear. This disrupted news presentation where distorted audios are disturbing to the audience.
For TV news gathering process, reporters go to the field with the camera men who shoot live events using digital cameras and stream them live to the TV station as they happen. Where news gathering is not done live, digital cameras also use memory cards and hard disks to store audio and footages. Reporters can give a voice over during editing and combine videos and audio for news presentation purposes.

 

Traditionally, there were analogue video cameras which used tapes. They were huge and heavy to carry and also produced black and white images. Editing tapes included cutting manually with razor blade and joining. This would lead to loss of information where important material was cut and couldn't be retrieved. Tapes also had an element of wear and tear which means they wouldn't last for long.

 

 

Digital editing of news involves undo and redo which means that where editors have removed important material unwantedly they can undo the process and have it back.
News gathering process today can also be done using mobile phones. Here reporters can record both video and audio and send it to the editor via internet. This has easened the news gathering process and have increased its speed.
For online journalism, news gathering process involves even citizen journalists who can collect news and publish it online. Online journalism allows linkages where one news item can be linked with another similar item for background information.Reporters can interact with the audience online and get more credible information before presenting.

   

MEDIA LANDSCAPE

 

Media operations, that is, gathering news, editing and presenting to the audience, has grown over the years. Traditionally gathering and dissemination of news was done manually. This was due to the lack of modern technology which we see today and journalists used to work hard to meet deadline despite the challenges of poor technological access.

With technology in media we mean, digital broadcasting which entails digital gathering of information, digital editing and digital transmission of news and any other media content and the existence of new media which is online journalism that has incorporated broad diversity of news gathering editing and dissemination. This has also encouraged citizen journalism where members of the society are involved in gathering news and disseminating.

When we look at traditional media that is mainstream media, journalists used to be so recognized and journalism work was done by professionals. This is the time when there was serious journalism practice. Credibility, accuracy and impartiality was very much acknowledged. This is the time when journalists would be sued for defamation or mispresentation  of information where even the media house would be closed.

There is a case study of KTN which was closed for a while during the reign of retired President Mwai Kibaki where KTN was accused of wrong presentation of information. There was destruction of property and taking some reporters to the custody.

Today due to existence of new media, credibility and seriousness in journalism has been overshadowed. There are many people involved involved in journalism practice most of whom have not been trained and know nothing about journalism ethics and codes of practice.

However there are positive results of having technology in journalism practice. The first one is that journalists are able to collect news and disseminate them on location. This is whereby a journalist goes to the field with an electronic gadget like mobile phone or a tablet, gathers news with both visual and audio, edits using the same gadget and disseminate online. This has helped to increase speed in news presentation where the audience can receive any breaking story very fast and easily by the use of internet.

In print media there is the use of quark software which has revolutionized newspaper work. There is increase in speed of editing texts in newspaper work, editing pictures and making use of different graphics and colors to make the newspaper presentable to the readers. Also it has made it easy to meet deadline since newspaper production is done daily and requires a lot of hard work so as not to publish a blank copy.

In TV and radio, there is use of digital tools. Digital recorder has easened gathering of news in radio where actualities are taken using this gadget. It assures proper audio signal for use in news presentation.

 

Use of digital cameras in TV there is use of digital cameras which have improved the use of pictures and videos. This is because the professional digital cameras enable users to zoom and focus the subject clearly thus producing good crispier images.

Digital editing also has enabled editors to use image manipulation, use of graphics and animation thus producing good presentable material to the audience.

Journalists are able to interact with the audience by developing a topic of discussion where audience can contribute. Social media is the major tool in this which entails facebook pages and rwitter handles where audience’s comments and contributions can be read on air in mainstream media thus gratifying the audience’s needs.

Digital transmission has also contributed to improvement of media practice where quality pictures are disseminated. It has also encouraged many media stations to be opened creating enough room for job vacancy

 

 

     

 

 

free market forum 2016

THE FREE MARKET FORUM

This forum takes place in Hillsdale College where scholars talk of the relationship of economic liberty to civil and religious liberty, the case of China

Dr. Charles wolf an economist talks Bring along and Take always where he describes Bring along as distinction between freedom from and liberty to do, which both apply in economic domain.

He talks of freedom from excess taxation which is liberty but restriction apply to civil and religious domain in china.

The 2^nd bring alongs Dr Wolf talk of 3Ts and 1S which entails Taiwan, Tibet, Tiananmen and Student protest which they call umbrella movement. He says it is politically incorrect in China to discuss the umbrella movement in public and in private.

In analyzing economic liberty in China, he talks of optimism 3^rd and 4^th party plenums(2013 to 2014) praise for both state sector (SOEs and market sector plus attention to the rule of law also data on relative GDP shares (4O% of state sector which he terms as better) growth rates employment growth since 2OO7, which raises concerns about slow down.

The links between reducing or eliminating continuity of CC and corruption which manifest throughout and the size of government is called tacit syllogism. Optimism in economic liberty has been accomplished in private sector and state sector.

Companies like alibaba and Huawei have grown remarkably in global market, however as long as state sector is prominent in Chinese economy the incentives for corruption will be irresistible.

Looking at civil liberty Freedom House Ratings have placed china as second tier of two dozen countries with worst civil liberty records among 105 countries included in 2015 revolution.

Chinas civil liberty is higher than that of North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria and some low level compared to Cuba, Ethiopia, Crimea (Post Russian occupation but less free than Iran, Egypt and Algeria.

Texture quality of civil liberty (civil rights and civil society) is sharply different between US and china US pluralism diversity are core values (eg second amendment versus general control, ro- choise, ro- life, think tank across spectrum etc.

Pluralism is incentivized by via tax exception hence 2.5million people are in religious organization which shows the quality of civil liberty.

China unity or narrow range of diversity seek and enforce multiple sources of suort for government policy e.g new think tanks with Chinese characteristics to establish a policy making constituency which entails development of new ideas which soused to be supportive thus likely result is hundreds of NGOs versus million in US.

Eras counterveiling effects of huge iPhone penetration and hyperactive internet use, 7OOmillion in china erticiate on internet which is a source of civil liberty.

Religious liberty on the other hand according to Article 36 of Chinese constitution has severe restriction.

China is termed as secular and relational society rather than transactional society in US but religious freedom for all citizens in china is constitutionally guaranteed although denied for 85 million CC members.

 localized, delocalized religious practices are okay but not centralized organized movement for example Falon Gong, Muslim Uigurs.

Religious liberty in china is tolerated yet restricted compared to Asia and Middle East              

 

What about the post-election violence victims?

What about the post-election violence victims?

Many people are happily celebrating about the verdict given by judges in ICC. It’s true people have been praying for the Ocampo six where the list have been reducing for the last 7 years since the case started. When Deputy President William Ruto and journalist Joshua Arap Sang were left in the list, it was seen as victimization to them.

The Ocampo six’s list is now clear and no one has been prosecuted 7 years down the line. This poses serious questions on who was guilty during the 2007-2008, who was exactly in the list of Ocampo which remained a secret to the Kenyan government, why has the case taken so long only to have no one prosecuted, how will the violence victims get their justice and compensation?

Ocampo’s list when he first came to Kenya to do investigations contained more than just six members. These members were never mentioned and they have been freely interacting and sending out comments on 2007-2008 post- election violence where they still vie for elections forgetting what they did back then.

It’s true as President Uhuru said that we should forget the past as Kenyans and move on with unity. The major hindrance to this is that there   are people still suffering some still got burns on their body where they can come out to the society because of the shame of appearing ugly and being stared.   

The function of ICC is to hear crimes committed by national offenders whose cases can’t be solved by local courts. I expected to see it deliver proper justice to post-election violence victims owing to the fact that it is an international court.

While some Kenyans are celebrating the verdict given on Tuesday, there are  other Kenyans who are still wounded by what happened in 2007. They lost their relatives, their loved ones, their properties and their value but nevertheless they have not been compensated.

The ICC prosecution apparently has failed to perform its duties effectively. I don’t really think it is helpful anymore even if it came in Kenya today and do investigations again. The whole thing would take the same route as the current one and justice for the victims will not be found.

Kenyans forget very fast and this is seen when politicians are giving out speeches in political rallies. The case of Moses Kuria for instance telling people to carry pangas in public was a serious hate speech. His case in court over this was overthrown so quickly and no action was taken against him to teach others like him a lesson.

George Aladwa is another example of a politician insighting Kenyans in public to claim the ‘seat’ by force. This is exactly what caused the 2007-2008 post-election violence. Going back to that in 2017 is not hard when politicians continue to insight  people and no action is taken against them.