The Speaker of Parliament Anita Among has revealed that a new law is in the offing that will deal with fake news within the media industry.
The Speaker made the remarks during the State of Nation Address at Kololo Independence Grounds on Tuesday where she thanked media for the services rendered to inform electorates, but also decried what she termed as fake news among journalists.
The Speaker’s remarks about new legislation is in relation to a decision Parliament took to grant Muhammad Nsereko (Kampala Central) to table a private member’s bill titled Computer Misuse Amendment Bill that he said sought to end cyber bullying within Uganda’s internet space.
Nsereko said that his proposed legislation sought to amend some provisions in the Computer Misuse Act, that aren’t stringent enough to deter cyber bullying in Uganda.
Nsereko defended his controversial legislation arguing that despite the benefits of the computer-generated technology, the technology has been grossly abused leading to the deprivation of the right to privacy through willful sending and sharing of negative, false, malicious, hopeful, unwarranted pictures, insulting or even threatening information.
Although the Speaker did not specifically point out the three scandals Parliament has been embroiled in, recently, Rubanda district Woman MP Prosy Akampurira also who is also a member of parliamentary commissioner, confirmed that Parliament had procured two officials cars and plans are underway to procure official residences as part of their entitlements to their offices.
She also defended the decision to buy houses for both the Speaker and Deputy Speaker arguing that Uganda has top officials like Chief Justice and Governor Bank of Uganda who have official houses and the case would not be any different at Parliament when the occupant cease to be Speakers, the houses fall back to the ownership of Parliament.
In her communication during the state of nation address, Speaker Among revealed that in the first session, the 11th Parliament passed 26 bills and two bills were withdrawn.
She also revealed that by closure of the session, there were three bills that remained pending including the Kampala Capital City Authority Amendment Bill, Public Health Amendment Bill and the Local Content Bill 2022.
The Speaker also revealed that between May 2021 to May 2022, 31 reports were transacted and 12 MPs were granted leave to introduce private members bills.
Among also urged MPs that as the 11th Parliament embarks on its second session, society continues to grapple with numerous challenges notably the increased cost of living and its attendant difficulties and all efforts should be put towards helping society to navigate these challenges.
The Speaker reechoed the need for the Committees and Parliament to continue conducting more public consultations in execution of business, evaluation of evidence in both committees and whole house and regular reporting of committees and their undertaking.
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