UGANDA - Though consuming pornography is illegal in Uganda, Minister of Ethics Nsaba Buturo said an amendment to the law has been finalized in order to curb the vice.
"The anti-pornography bill will soon be tabled in Parliament for approval as another strategy of tightening laws on pornography," Buturo said.
The amendment in the pornography law, as stated in the penal code act, will target Internet cafes, video halls and electronic media. Since video halls are considered responsible for exposing young people to pornography, they would be constantly monitored.
A new film-governing body, the Federation of Uganda Movie Industry, has been established to maintain ethical standards of movies and copyright laws for producers and video-hall owners.
Many cafes post guidelines to be read and understood by Internet users. Rose Mawanda, a cafe attendant at Global World Internet Cafe in Ntinda, said these guidelines govern her business.
"I have notices all over the place. ... 'No surfing pornographic materials, please' [and] 'Respect the rules and regulations' are some of the notices," she said. "Anyone caught [breaking the rules] will lose his membership at the cafe."
Since Mawanda lacks filtering technology, she monitors her cafe because her patrons include children, especially on weekends and during holidays.
"I have to keep on monitoring because we don't have the technology to block the websites with immoral content," she said.
Rules are set for all Internet surfing students at the Makerere University undergraduate laboratory. The poster reads, "Anybody found accessing pornography will be banned from accessing this library until he leaves the institution."
"The computer room is for academic purposes - research, accessing books and other serious work like typing coursework and dissertations - so anybody caught accessing any content apart from that is handed over to the security personnel," said a member of the library's staff. "There are certain websites that cannot be accessed, since we blocked them."
Sam Kasoma, who owns an Internet cafe in Wandegeya, said he is not concerned about what his clients browse on the Internet because they are mature.
"Wandegeya is an environment surrounded mostly by the student community from the university and other high institutions of learning, so they are free to look for whatever they want on the Internet," he said. "I don't care about my customers. I give them freedom to access anything. If I restrict them, they will run to other cafes."
