Court orders compensation

Court orders compensation

Uganda’s Rolling Stone newspaper – no relation to the music magazine – has been ordered to pay compensation to the 100 people it outed last year.

High Court judge Vincent Musoke-Kibuuke ruled the newspaper, which printed the names, addresses and photograph of 100 people it claimed to be gay or lesbian, pay compensation to its victims and never carry out a similar stunt again.

After the magazine published the names, photos and addresses of the 100 people, threats and violence ensued almost immediately against those who were identified.

Stories came out quickly of families which had to flee the country.

The request for the ban was filed by three people from gay rights group, Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), whose pictures and towns of residence were published in a previous issue of Rolling Stone.

Judge Musoke-Kibuuke also ruled that the petitioners’ lives were threatened since the story exposed them to potential attacks from vigilantes.

The petitioners were awarded 1.5 million Uganda shillings (about 650 dollars or 500 euros) and Rolling Stone was ordered to pay all legal fees incurred by SMUG.

“We think that the compensation is on the low side, but the principles here are very important,” a SMUG spokesperson said.

In a previous hearing, the judge suggested that Uganda’s law against homosexuality, defined as “carnal knowledge against the order of nature,” should be re-examined.

In a series of issues last year, Rolling Stone outed more than 20 people whom its editor believed were gay. The editor, undergraduate student Giles Muhame, said he found some of the photos that were published on a gay dating website.

The High Court case centered on one story headlined ‘Hang Them’, in which an unidentified evangelical pastor called for the execution of gay rights campaigners.

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