Police, get Close Interest in Media Reports

PAUL R. ARUHO

Media plays several roles in society. These roles have always been summarised into three. That is to inform, educate, and entertain. The first one, to inform stands out of all the three. This is because the media gives us news, which is new information less known to the public (us).

In its information role, the media acts as a watchdog in society. A watchdog is different from a sniffer dog. A sniffer dog is trained to use its senses to detect substances such as explosives, and illegal drugs to mention a few. The most common sense mostly used by a sniffer dog is smell. On the contrary, a watchdog is that one kept to watch over private property.

When you have a watchdog at home, its role is, to watch and report to the owner of any intruder into the homestead. It just barks and hardly runs after the intruder. But for a sniffer dog goes beyond that. It can detect something foreign and at times does the chasing.

Media plays a watchdog role. As a watchdog, the media has always highlighted many things in our society. Some of these issues have been good while others are extremely bad.

Media does not work in isolation. As a fourth estate, the media works closely with other arms of government. It works closely with police and other security organs. According to the United Nations, the police force or service performs the duties assigned to them by the law of protecting the public against violence, crime, and other harmful acts. Policing is all about maintaining public order and safety, enforcing the law, and preventing, detecting, and investigating criminal activities.

I am writing this in relation to a story in Mbarara that was reported in the media a few months ago. A man chased his wife and their two children out of the marital house. The woman started to sleep on the veranda with her children. This report was aired on several media including a regional television. This report showed that the woman and her children were in danger and vulnerable to anything.

It never took long, before the same media reported that the woman was attacked and hacked to near death. The images of her in Mbarara Referral Hospital were gruesome. It was very absurd.

This is where I base myself to ask what went wrong? Why didn’t the police detect that this woman was in danger and protect her against the man who almost killed her? Did the police ignore media reports? Where were the local leaders in that area? This shows that the different sections of security failed this poor woman, but more so, they failed to protect the woman who should have been protected under the laws of Uganda.

The media did its part, of informing the public of what the woman was going through. However, there are those who never came in to save the life of the woman and her children. There have been a number of issues that happen because we have not taken media reports seriously. Security organs should always take crime-related media reports seriously to prevent further damage.