Danish photojournalist Klaus Thymann was arrested in Uganda, officials confirmed to AFP on Tuesday, days after the army chief ordered the shutdown of the leading independent media group.
Thymann, an award-winning photojournalist known for his climate and environmental reporting, was detained on Monday over alleged wildlife-related offences, local media reported.
He was meeting authorities over permits for his environmental work in the Rwenzori Mountains when he was arrested, the reports said.
“Investigations into the case are under way,” an official at the Uganda Wildlife Authority told AFP, confirming the arrest.
Authorities have yet to disclose the reasons for his arrest.
Last week, Thymann said on X that he was struggling to obtain a permit in Uganda despite being an accredited journalist.
“I am in Uganda and am being denied access to a UNESCO Natural Heritage Site I understand I am also a wanted person now.
I need help, UNESCO is not responding,” reads his post.
Uganda-based NGO Centre for Citizens Conserving Environment (CECIC) said he was detained over his documentation of the melting glaciers in the Rwenzori Mountains.
“His detention, following official pushback against his recent glacier findings, points to journalism being punished rather than a genuine crime,” reads CECIC’s statement.
It comes after army chief Muhoozi Kainerugaba, also the son of President Yoweri Museveni, shut down the Nation Media Group on Sunday saying that:
“I DO NOT believe in a free press”.
There is a push to reopen the shut media amid condemnation over the Uganda ranks 143 out of 180 countries worldwide on the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.
United States Senator Jim Risch has called for a review of Washington’s security relationship with Uganda.
Risch, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, suggested that Uganda was an ‘unfit partner’ following the recent closure of media outlets sanctioned by the military chief, Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
“The U.S. needs to review its security relationship with Uganda. Gen. @mkainerugaba’s attacks on free speech, including shuttering major media houses this weekend, make him & the UPDF unfit partners.
We should only work with those who advance regional security, not diminish it,” Risch wrote in a tweet on Monday.
he U.S Senator was responding to a report on the closure of two leading media outlets, NTV Uganda and the Daily Monitor Newspaper, owned by the Nation Media Group (NMG).
Muhoozi, on June 28, ordered the closure of the stations, saying Uganda was against the free press.
By Agencies
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