Prime
EU rallies Ugandans against disinformation
EU Deputy head of delegation Guillaume Chartrain (2R) in a panel discussion with journalists, activists and academia during the FIMI dialogue in Kampala on July 25, 2024.
What you need to know:
- Through the European External Action Service [EEAS], EU has since 2015 sought to tackle global disinformation by building capacity to address FIMI.
Guillaume Chartrain, the European Union Deputy Head of Delegation has denounced Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) saying “it is a form of disinformation that undermines democracy.”
"Around the world, FIMI can contribute to increasing polarization and division within the EU and within partner countries such as Uganda and at the same time impacts the EU’s ability to implement its policies at home and abroad,” he said at a high level dialogue with media practitioners and social-political commentators in Kampala on Thursday.
He added: "FIMI can also escalate political violence in already conflict-prone regions, thereby subverting EU and international peacekeeping efforts around the globe."
Speakers at the dialogue said caution against disinformation was key as opposed to restrictive laws.
Experts, including Makerere University Political Science Don Philip Kasaija Apuuli argued that the best way to deal with misinformation, which may not have a definite solution, is to create awareness among the public to be able to question and probe the information they consume.
Agather Atuhaire, the founder of rights focused NGO Agora Discourse said: “We need to aim more on what limiting freedom of expression does. How does it affect us? You strike a balance by seeing what has higher benefits, like the cost-benefit analysis, what has higher benefits. If you ask me, the higher benefits are in allowing people to express themselves.”
Uganda has been faulted by some human rights organizations for repressive laws like the Computer Misuse Act, under which government critics are often prosecuted.
Through the European External Action Service [EEAS], EU has since 2015 sought to tackle global disinformation by building capacity to address FIMI.
“In leading the fight against disinformation, EU does no interfere in internal state affairs,” Chartrain emphasized hours before President Museveni accused undisclosed “foreigners” of funding anti-corruption protests in Kampala.
"Whoever rises up to speak against the corruption, bad governance, human rights violations in this country is accused of being an agent of Western imperialists. And the same Western imperialists fund this government," Atuhaire reacted.
She added: “When they are funding governments, they are development partners, but when they are funding other actors…that's when they become Western imperialists."
