Media Defence Logo

CLOSE

12 Lawyers graduate Media Defence East Africa Freedom of Expression Litigation Surgery in Kampala, Uganda

12 Lawyers graduate Media Defence East Africa Freedom of Expression Litigation Surgery in Kampala, Uganda

12 lawyers from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda completed a four-day legal training on freedom of expression in East Africa, between 7 and 11 August 2016. The workshop was hosted by the Media Legal Defence Initiative (MLDI) in partnership with the Human Rights Network for Journalists – Uganda (HRNJ-U) and the law firm WilmerHale.

Participants were trained on defamation law, freedom of expression online, media regulation, and freedom of information. They also developed their knowledge of international human rights mechanisms, such as the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the East African Court of Justice, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights – with practical tips on how to litigate before these mechanisms.

As part of the litigation surgery, the lawyers workshopped cases that could be pursued before domestic and/or international fora. Cases workshopped explored the constitutionality of restrictions placed on the media which prevents them from reporting from certain public places; criminal defamation as a violation of the right to freedom of expression under international law; and the blocking or banning of newspapers, social media services, or websites.

MLDI provides legal support to journalists, bloggers and independent media worldwide to enable them to continue with their reporting. A significant portion of MLDI’s work is currently conducted in the East African region; consequently MLDI is continually seeking to strengthen its network of lawyers to work within the region to further the regional freedom of expression framework.

MLDI thanks Ford FoundationHivos, and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, who co-funded the training.

Training materials are available here: Resources

Recent News

We’re recruiting: Legal Officer

About Media Defence Media Defence is a charity that helps media to defend their rights. We support independent media, journalists and citizen journalists who are under legal threat by making sure that lawyers are available to defend them. We engage in strategic litigation to improve the regulatory environment for media freedom, make grants to organisations […]

Read

Les lois sur les “fake news” sont-elles le meilleur moyen de lutter contre la désinformation?

En décembre 2021, la Grèce a rejoint la liste croissante des pays qui légifèrent contre les “fausses nouvelles” (ou « fake news » en anglais). La modification du code pénal vise à poursuivre les citoyens grecs qui diffusent de fausses informations pendant la pandémie de COVID-19. Tout citoyen diffusant de fausses informations sur la santé publique risque […]

Read

Our Journalist Impact Survey 2022

“If i didn’t have Media Defence’s support, I would have been condemned .” – Journalist supported by Media Defence in 2022. In 2022, we carried out our sixth annual Journalist Impact Survey to look at the longer-term impact of our support to journalists. We designed our Journalist Impact Survey to understand the quality of our […]

Read