Parliament insists editors must appear

Parliament’s Committee on Rules, Privileges and Discipline has insisted that editors of three media Houses must appear before an ongoing inquiry into coverage of MPs’ expenses and defend stories they published.

The Committee made the ruling after editors for the second time rejected summons to appear before the Committee to shed light on the stories that have been disputed by Parliament authorities.

Committee Vice Chairperson Ongalo Obote says they will issue fresh summons for the Editors to appear on Thursday 27^th October before compiling a report to be presented to the House when it resumes on November 14^th for action to be taken against the defiant media Houses.

On orders of the Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, the committee is investigating media Houses that authored stories relating to the money Parliament forked out to facilitate a controversial trip by MPs to the United States to attend a convention.

The media houses reported that Parliament spent about Shs2.1 billion to facilitate 78 MPs including Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and her deputy Jacob Oulanyah, a figure House authorities deny, insisting that only 20 MPs, five ministers and one EALA MP travelled.

 

Written by David Kugonza