A group of Ugandans identified as homosexual in a newspaper article headlined "Hang Them" have won damages and a court injunction ordering the paper not to repeat the exercise, human rights groups said today. By printing the names, and in some cases the addresses and photographs, of 100 people it named as "Uganda's top homos", the Court says the Rolling Stone Newspaper violated their constitutional rights to privacy and safety. It awarded the three plaintiffs in whose names the case was launched just over £400 each in damages.The list was published shortly before the first anniversary of the introduction to Uganda's parliament of a since scrapped bill calling for the death penalty for those convicted of repeated same-sex relations, which was inspired at least in part by a group of US evangelicals with close links to Uganda. Rolling Stone, started by journalism graduates from Makerere University in Kampala, claimed that the country's homosexual community aimed to "recruit 1,000,000 children by 2012", and that parents "face heart-breaks as homos raids schools [sic]." Inside, a headline read: "Hang them; They are after our kids!!" The paper's managing editor, Giles Muhame, said it was his duty as a journalist to "expose the evil in our society". A number of the people listed reported subsequent attacks on themselves and their property.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 4th January 2011 - 7:23pm