Media reports on Uganda’s first prosecutions under the capital crime of “aggravated homosexuality” have framed them as “controversial” and “anti-gay,” with CNN amongst others appearing to take the side of a pedophile, as well as a man who took advantage of a disabled person.
CNN, which illustrated its coverage of the prosecutions with a picture of a black man praying while draped in a Progress Pride flag, waited until its third paragraph before disclosing that “aggravated homosexuality” involves “incest, sex with children as well as people with disabilities or the elderly” under the terms of the “much-criticized” legislation. They did not mention that it also includes spreading HIV.
While acknowledging that one of the two reported prosecutions involves a man accused of taking advantage of a 41-year-old with a disability early on, the network did not tell readers that the second prosecution involves “a child aged 12” until the report’s eleventh paragraph.
Two men in Uganda are facing separate charges of “aggravated homosexuality,” an offense punishable by death under the country’s controversial new anti-gay laws https://t.co/vwNet7XDuJ
— CNN (@CNN) August 29, 2023
The Guardian was even more disingenuous in its reporting on the prosecutions, merely saying that a 20-year-old was accused of “unlawful sexual intercourse with … [a] male adult aged 41” under “anti-LGBTQ+ legislation”. The pedophile prosecution was not mentioned at all.
Several news outlets besides CNN, such as NPR and the Associated Press, chose to illustrate their reporting with emotionally charged imagery of black men carrying Pride flags, or bearing messages like ‘Some Ugandans are gay. Get over it!’
