Skip to Navigation | Skip to Content | Leap to Bottom

Statement by Ugandan Literary Community about Stella Nyanzi

28.4.17

Statement by Ugandan Literary Community about Stella Nyanzi Dear writers, editors, authors, bloggers, publishers, curators, literary activists, scholars and colleagues in the creative sector, kindly consider signing the petition / public statement below. We will keep updating the list of signatories. By 11:15 am when we published the statement publicly, it was signed by 68 writers. CONCERNS ABOUT THE STATE OF FREE CREATIVE EXPRESSION IN UGANDA FOLLOWING THE JAILING OF STELLA NYANZI To the Government of Uganda We, Ugandan writers, editors, authors, bloggers, publishers, curators, literary activists, scholars and colleagues in the creative sector hereby express our concerns as to the environment in which we operate in Uganda following the arrest and prosecution of one of us, Dr. Stella Nyanzi. On April 10, 2017, we were shocked to learn that Dr. Nyanzi was charged with cyber harassment the particulars of which offence include her deployment of a metaphor to express herself. That using the metaphor of 'pair of buttocks' to refer to a person can form a basis for a criminal charge sent chills in the creative writing community. This means that we are unable to express ourselves creatively, to contribute to our country's literary and cultural wealth if our frame of references, our deployment of literary devices can lead to criminal prosecution. While the right to free expression applies to everyone, it is of particular importance to the creative industry because it allows room to utilise imaginations, to entertain, to challenge, to inform, to educate, and to document among other functions of creative expression. We are concerned that the imprisonment of Dr Stella Nyanzi, may open a floodgate for the criminalisation of creativity in Uganda. This would be a reversal of the achievements of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) in creating a favourable environment for the opening up of free and creative spaces in Uganda that have increased since 1986. We therefore appeal to the authorities to reflect on the implications of the charges against Stella Nyanzi on the creative industry and drop them for the good of our literary culture and the country. For God and Our Country


Read the full article … 

Dispatch: Aboriginal Press Media Group  |   Permalink  |   [28.4.17]  |   0 comments

2436907903801944360

»  {Newer-Posts} {Older-Posts}  «

0 Comments:

Post a Comment



 / 28.4.17 / 2017/04/#2436907903801944360




Aboriginal News Group

Contributing Editors, International Correspondents & Affiliates




This is an Ad-Free Newswire


#ReportHate
============
Southern Poverty Law Center


This site uses the Blogspot Platform



Impressum

Inteligenta Indigena Novajoservo™ (IIN) is maintained by the Aboriginal Press News Service™ (APNS) a subset of the Aboriginal News Group™ (ANG). All material provided here is for informational purposes only, including all original editorials, news items and related post images, is published under a CC: Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license (unless otherwise stated) and/or 'Fair Use', via section 107 of the US Copyright Law). This publication is autonomous; stateless and non-partisan. We refuse to accept paid advertising, swag, or monetary donations and assume no liability for the content and/or hyperlinked data of any other referenced website. The APNS-ANG and its affiliate orgs do not advocate, encourage or condone any type/form of illegal and/or violent behaviour.