As iMediaEthics previously reported, a Ugandan court ruled that media cannot out homosexual people after Ugandan magazine The Rolling Stone (which is not affiliated with the American magazine Rolling Stone) published “several lists of people its editor said were gay.”
One of the men outed — David Kato — was murdered Jan. 26. According to Christian Science Monitor, Kato “was a prominent gay rights activist in Uganda — a tough job in a country where homosexuality is illegal and gay men and women regularly face harassment.”
Kato was pictured on the front page of The Rolling Stone with the headline “Hang them” and the sub-headlines “We Shall Recruit 100,000 Innocent Kids by 2012: Homos” and “Parents now face heart-breaks [sic] as homos raid schools”.
The Rolling Stone’s editor Giles Muhame stood by the magazine’s outing issue, despite Kato’s murder. Muhame reportedly told The Guardian “This looks like any other crime. I have no regrets about the story. We were just exposing people who were doing wrong.”
According to The Guardian, The Rolling Stone “would have remained obscure were it not for the anti-gay campaign.” The Rolling Stone reportedly has a circulation of “fewer than 3,000 copies.”
Muhame issued a statement on Facebook here:
“Rolling Stone feels sorry for the family of Kato and prays that his soul rests in eternal peace.”