civil society warns of government effort to curtailing space for freedom of expression

The civil society has warned that the space for expression is to be further curtailed by the recent efforts by government to monitor communication via internet.
As Uganda prepares to join the rest of the world to mark the Internet freedom Day slated tomorrow, the Unwanted Witness Uganda a local Human Rights body has released a report indicating that in a bid to regulate internet activities, instead government is infringing on the freedom of expression and the right to privacy.

According to the Executive Director, Unwanted witness Uganda, Wokulira Ssebaggala, many Ugandans are using internet with little knowledge that they are closely being monitored by government agencies.
Explaining the search finding on the state of Internet freedom in Uganda, Ssebagala government agencies like the police have acquired sophiscated equipment and set up surveillance centers to closely watch each internet user.
He says that the security officers and the those hired at the centres are trained on how to hack into people’s accounts which threats the right to privacy

Ssebagala adds that whereas it is necessary to regulate internet usage, the five laws enacted in the past three years do not meant Human Rights standards as they are only focus at government interests.
He says that report recommends the review of the recently enacted laws and come up with more that uphold the right to privacy for effective usage of internet

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