Policemen arrest a journalist in Kampala.
Ugandan police fired tear gas at journalists in the capital Kampala yesterday who were protesting against a media crackdown after press reports sparked a rare public debate on who will succeed aging President Yoweri Museveni. Authorities in the east African country halted operations at two newspapers and two radio stations on May 20 after they reported a purported plot to assassinate certain people who said that Museveni was grooming his son for power. Allegations of such a plot were mentioned by General David Sejusa in a private letter that was leaked to The Daily Monitor, the country’s biggest-circulating independent daily, which is owned by Kenya’s Nation Media Group and is one of the newspapers that the authorities closed down. Police have said they were investigating the alleged assassination plot and that the closure of the newspapers and radio stations was to allow them to search for documents. Wokulira Ssebaggala, National Co-ordinator at Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda, said.