Kampala, Uganda, March 4, 2025—Two masked officers with Uganda’s security agency Joint Anti-Terrorist Task Force (JAT) assaulted Ibrahim Miracle, a reporter for Christian broadcaster Top TV, while he was reporting in the capital, Kampala, on February 26. The journalist told CPJ that the attack left him hospitalized with severe injuries.
“Security officers brutally attacked journalist Ibrahim Miracle, leaving him with grave injuries, simply because he was doing his job,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo, from Nairobi. “Ugandan authorities must break with the culture of violence against journalists by investigating those who carried out the assault and those who commanded the operation, ensuring accountability. Media must be able to cover political events without fear of violence.”
Miracle was covering the arrest and assault of an opposition party nominee in an upcoming parliamentary by-election in Kampala when a JAT officer grabbed his camera and ordered him to stop filming, according to the journalist and a statement from the media rights group Human Rights Network for Journalists – Uganda. Miracle said that when he protested, another JAT officer struck him in the face with a baton, knocking him into a ditch, where he hit his head.
The journalist sustained severe injuries to his face, including a crack to one of the bones surrounding his eye, and has experienced debilitating headaches, according to Livingstone Matovu, Top TV news editor, and Joseph Miracle Ssebyala, the journalist’s uncle, who spoke with CPJ. Ssebyala told CPJ that Miracle remained hospitalized as of March 4 and had undergone at least two surgeries.
On February 27, lawmakers raised concerns in parliament about the assault, and Uganda’s trade minister, David Bahati, said the government would investigate.
Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Luke Owoyesigyire told CPJ by phone that the police were aware of the incident and waiting to record the victim’s statement. CPJ’s calls to military spokesperson Felix Kulayigye were unanswered.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.
CPJ Staff | Radio Free (2025-03-04T17:12:52+00:00) Ugandan anti-terrorism officers brutally assault journalist. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/04/ugandan-anti-terrorism-officers-brutally-assault-journalist/
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