Obore’s Office Probes Extortion Among Parliament Journalists

The East African Community Legislative Assembly is sitting in Uganda as part of it’s regional sittings which sit in different members states. These meet and discuss matters of regional importance to the East African Community.

They’re quite a number of journalists stationed at parliament who report for different media houses during live parliamentary debates, committee sittings and even through the corridors of the national assembly.

There’s however a discomforting vice that legislators have over time complained about regarding journalists who demand money from them in order to prioritize their stories on their channels and even get a chance to be hosted.

It’s surprising that even the Uganda Parliamentary Press Association (UPPA) which is led by Next Media’s Sam Ibanda Mugabi has failed to clamp down on this vice which is slowly killing the quality of journalism at parliament where legislators who fail to bribe journalists face negative backlash.

News coming in from parliament indicate that the Directorate of Communications at parliament which is led by Chris Obore is not okay with the idea of journalists extorting members of parliament. Ahead of the EALA sittings, a warning was sent to the journalists to change or face the consequences.

Many of these extortionists during the EALA presser targeted legislators from Uganda who have intentions contest in the 2026 general elections to join the 12th parliament but seems this didn’t go with some bosses at parliament who have sounded warning drums to the begging journalists.

However, some journalists who spoke to this publication on condition of anonymity reveal that it’s the laxity of Chris Obore’s department which has given chance for this vice to grow because nothing is done to even some journalists who have no media stations they report for to the extent that even some do interviews for their tiktok accounts.

The extortion journalists are stationed at parliament, ever on the look for who bring on table and deep hands in his pockets. Many of these are well known and in our next article about extortion at parliament, we will name them including senior journalists who have worked with prominent media houses in Kampala.

If you have a story in your community or an opinion article, let’s publish it. Send us an email via news@accord.co.ug or WhatsApp +256758201313. Follow our WhatsApp Channel HERE and our Telegram Channel HERE to see more of our stories.