A photo of a man in police uniform taking a shot holding a catapult is being shared on social media with the claim that a newly appointed Uganda police spokesperson "hit a reporter for asking irrelevant question."
The Quint's WebQoof team found that the photo is from 2021 when Uganda Police Force (UPF) spokesperson Fred Enanga was showing reporters confiscated illegal factory-made catapults and demonstrating how they were being used.
CLAIM
The photo is shared by former Dutch ambassador to India Fons Stoelinga on his Twitter account with the caption that reads, "Newly appointed Uganda police spokesman hits news reporter with a caterpult for asking irrelevant question.(sic)"
An archive of the tweet can be seen here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
WHAT WE FOUND
On a closer look at the image, we saw a watermark 'URN' at the bottom.
The watermark 'URN' can be seen.
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
Next, we conducted a Google reverse image search on the photo and came across an article on the website of 'Uganda Radio Network' published on 14 April 2021 that had carried the same image, along with the URN logo on the right-bottom corner.
The police officer in the photo was identified as 'police spokesperson Fred Enanga.'
The article read that the police were investigating how consignments of factory-made catapults were being illegally imported into Uganda.
The logo of 'URN' can be seen.
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
Taking cue from here, we conducted a search on Google and came across a press release by the UPF from 12 April 2021. It carried a clearer photo of Enanga with the catapult.
It said that the Directorate of Crime Intelligence had confiscated several factory-made catapults during its intelligence operations, that possibly could have been used as "tools of violence."
The story was published on 12 April 2021.
(Source: Uganda Police Force/Screenshot)
Further, we found a video of a press conference by Enanga on the YouTube channel of UBC Television Uganda, an Uganda public broadcast service.
The video identifies him as UPF spokesperson Fred Enanga, where he can be heard saying those who have the factory-made catapults must surrender them.
Clearly, a video from Uganda where a police spokesperson was talking about illegal factory-made catapults is being shared on social media with the false claim that "the newly appointed Uganda spokesperson used it on a reporter."
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