To Silence a Poet, and a Nation: What Stella Nyanzi's Conviction Means for Uganda

http://www.ipsnews.net/2019/08/silence-poet-nation-stella-nyanzis-conviction-means-uganda/
Date Written:  2019-08-06
Publisher:  Inter Press Service
Year Published:  2019
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX23792

Dr. Stella Nyanzi has been convicted under internet obscenity laws for criticizing Uganda's president. The style of her writing may be as much an issue as the criticism itself.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

On Friday, Aug. 2, Nyanzi was found guilty of "cyber harassment" for posting a poem on Facebook on Museveni's birthday on Sept. 16, criticising his 33-year rule and his birth. She was given 18 months imprisonment for writing the strongly-worded verse that spoke about oppression, unemployment and the country’s absence of good governance and rule of law....

The poem took on a new dimension a month later when Nyanzi was charged with violating the Computer Misuse Act 2011 sections on cyber harassment and "obscene, lewd, lascivious or indecent" content production. The prosecution had argued that she intentionally harassed and humiliated the president through her post. The academic was also charged with "offensive communication", but she was found not guilty.

The Computer Misuse Act 2011 has provisions for offensive communication, which is defined as where a person "disturbs or attempts to disturb the peace, quiet or right of privacy of any person with no purpose of legitimate communication". It also has provisions for cyber harassment, which is defined as the use of a computer for "making any request, suggestion or proposal which is obscene, lewd, lascivious or indecent". A person can also be charged for cyber harassment if they knowingly allow someone to use their computer for the defined purpose....

Nyanzi's lawyer, Isaac Semakadde, told IPS that an 18-month jail sentence for an allegedly obscene post that was allegedly uploaded by Nyanzi is irreconcilable with not only the principals in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)—an international human rights treaty adopted by the United Nations of which Uganda is a signatory of—but also Uganda's bill of rights.