UGANDA: WOMEN ARRESTED AFTER PROTEST AT ELECTORAL OFFICE

On 18 January at least 30 women were detained in Kampala while attempting to deliver a petition calling for the resignation of the electoral commission chief Badru Kiggundu, who they say is unable to organise credible and fair elections, scheduled for 2011. The women, members of a group called InterParty Cooperation, were wearing T-shirts with the slogan ‘Women for Peace’; “they forcefully loaded us on police vehicles like sacks of beans even when we had voluntarily accepted arrest,” said the chair of the opposition women’s league, Ingrid Turinawe. Police say they are likely to be charged with criminal trespass, unlawful assembly and inciting violence.

BBC may face sanctions over homosexuality debate

Trevor Phillips, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission has said the BBC may be sanctioned if comments made by the public on its website do not comply with Labour’s new anti-discrimination laws. The move follows public criticism pver the BBC hosting an online debate on its news website asking whether gays should be executed in relation to a proposed anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda. Mark Stephens, a media lawyer who has been leading a commonwealth campaign against a proposed law in Uganda said: “ We must protect freedom of speech whether it is offensive or not. The alternative is to drive the debate underground.” Read more here