Newspaper guilty of abuse

We're in Uganda for the CJA in-country training. Yesterday, we had a session covering the difference in the kind of news coverage between mainstream media and citizen journalism. Participants had a look at two Ugandan newspapers, to assess the kind of stories that are covered: the Daily Monitor, and the Red Pepper -- seeing these are the only two newspapers readily available at our hotel.

As we looked through the two papers, I found myself utterly shocked by the Red Pepper. This is a sensationalist tabloid, rather like the Voice and Die Son, which we get in Cape Town. But it's way worse than anything I've seen before.

Die Son and the Voice are sensationalist and often use offensive and insulting language, or publish nauseating pictures of victims of crime. But the Red Pepper goes several steps beyond that.

Yesterday, the paper carried a story about a school teacher who'd been having sex with a 12-year old pupil. So far, that's nothing out of the ordinary for a tabloid. But the story went into great graphic detail about how that sex took place, using extremely crude language. The story was not written to convey horror and outrage at this abuse. Rather, it descended into pornography. It seemed designed to titillate readers rather than shock them -- rather like schoolboys (or dirty old men) sniggering as they pass around an X-rated magazine.

To top it all, the young girl's photo was published -- poor consolation that her name was withheld: there she was for all the world (and her friends, family, schoolmates and neighbours to see).

Through its coverage, the Red Pepper shamefully abused that poor girl all over again.

This morning on my way to breakfast, I passed the newspaper stand. The Red Pepper today has a front page story about a young man who was killed -- allegedly by his brother, using a panga. The Daily Monitor carries this story as a brief paragraph, saying the two fought over money. But the Red Pepper has it as a front page splash, saying the two fought over a woman (but they put it way more crudely than that). And there, on the front page, is a full colour picture of the dead man, his throat slit open.

I was so nauseated I could hardly eat my breakfast.