Uganda attacks journalists over protest coverage

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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Uganda's government is denouncing and attacking journalists covering weeks of political unrest and riots over rising prices, a media watchdog said Friday.

President Yoweri Museveni this week said journalists reporting on the opposition's "walk to work" protests are "enemies" for covering treacherous protests led by hired thugs and drug dealers.

Since the protests began last month, at least 10 journalists have been attacked, said Gilles Lordet, the editor-in-chief at Paris-based Reporters Without Borders. Two were hurt seriously enough to require hospitalization, including Eddie Ssejjoba of the New Vision newspaper, who said he was dragged out of a vehicle he was traveling in with his colleagues.

"Soldiers got the command to start beating up people who were taking pictures," Ssejjoba said. "They started beating us with canes, kicking us and demanding our cameras. Even when they got our cameras they did not stop beating us."