Prime
Sexual content strips Ethics ministry naked
What you need to know:
- The ministry has previously moved to insulate the country’s population from the impacts of hardcore pornography by, among others, setting up a Pornography Control Committee
The circulation of three different video recordings and images of a sexual and nude nature on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has once again shined an uncomfortable spotlight on the Ethics and Integrity Ministry.
The ministry has previously moved to insulate the country’s population from the impacts of hardcore pornography by, among others, setting up a Pornography Control Committee.
“There is a lot of corruption within the committee. The money that was meant for the pornography-detecting machine was eaten. The machine was not bought,” Mr Martin Sempa, an evangelist, protested.
The Anti-Pornographic Act, 2014, establishes a nine-member committee (Pornographic Control Committee) under Section 3, whose functions are explicitly provided for under Section 7. The committee is allotted Shs2 billion annually, funds provided for under Section 21.
The Act defines ‘‘pornography” to mean any representation through publication, exhibition, cinematography, indecent show, information technology, or by whatever means, of a person engaged in real or stimulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a person for primarily sexual excitement.
The anti-pornographic law prohibits any person from producing, trafficking in, publishing, broadcasting, procuring, importing, exporting, selling or abetting any form of pornography.
Section 13 (2) of the legislation makes clear that “a person who produces or participates in the production of, or traffics in, publishes, broadcasts, procures, imports, exports or in any way abets pornography contrary to subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding five hundred currency points (Shs10 million) or imprisonment not exceeding 10 years or both.”
Ruling
On August 13, 2021, a Constitutional Court ruling by Justice Frederick Egonda Ntende annulled sections 2, 11, 13, and 15 because they were inconsistent with the Constitution. Experts say the annulments that rendered the law toothless were informed by the fact that they are an infringement on the right to privacy.
‘‘If a person enjoys their privacy, and he is recorded in the act without his knowledge, that would be an intrusion on his right to privacy,” Mr Ivan Bwowe, a constitutional lawyer, said, adding, “The law would focus on the person who records the video or hacks the victim’s phone and shares it on the Internet.’’
Pastor Sempa said of the government thus: “The law was struck and they never bothered to appeal to court. They seem not to know how to handle the problem this country is facing and they have decided to look on.”
During a media briefing on Friday, Ethics and Integrity Minister Rose Lilly Akello said the government is relying on a multifaceted approach to address “the escalating levels of immorality” in the country. She asked parents and teachers to pull their weight.
Minister Akello added that the police have promised “to take up [the recent pockets of immorality] with a view of further investigating the perpetrators…”
Former Ethics and Integrity minister Nsaba Buturo, however, reckons that “those who are mandated to be doing something about the situation have chosen not to.”
Imam Idi Kasozi believes institutions like the family, schools, religious institutions, and the government, responsible for parenting and child development have dropped the ball.
‘‘Many of these children have been branded as celebrities by society. And because they earn some little money and perhaps feed their families, their parents refrain from rebuking them when they make mistakes,” he observes.
