Ugandan police on January 8, 2016, released two Ugandan editors after holding them without contact with the outside world for 24 hours for failing to reveal the source for a photograph published in their respective publications.
Police in Kampala summoned Ben Byarabaha, managing editor of the privately owned daily newspaper Red Pepper, and Dickson Mubiru, managing editor of the privately owned weekly Kamunye, an affiliated publication, on January 7, 2016, and questioned the two for several hours regarding the source of a photograph showing the dead body of a man the newspapers identified as Christopher Aine, chief of security for Ugandan presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi, according to reports. The candidate’s chief of security has been missing for weeks.
According to reports, police arrested the editors after they refused to disclose how they got the photograph.
The journalists were released late on January 8, 2016, without charge. No one had been able to see the journalists between the time they were arrested and the time they were released, reports said.
According to CPJ research, Red Pepper has been targeted several times in previous years, including a suspension of the paper by Ugandan authorities in 2013, and a raid by unknown gunmen in 2008.