(dpa/NAN) A Ugandan magistrates’ court on Monday charged eight newspaper journalists and editors with offending President Yoweri Museveni, a Justice Ministry spokesman said.

The journalists at the Red Pepper newspaper were arrested last week.

They “willfully and repeatedly” disturbed the “peace and privacy” of the president, his brother and a security minister when they published a story that Museveni allegedly planned to overthrow the government of neighbouring Rwanda, spokesman Solomon Muita said.

According to the charge sheet, read by Magistrate James Ereemye, the publication of the article also “unlawfully” disclosed “military operations, strategies and troop location.”

The charges can carry a prison sentence of up to seven years.

The journalists were denied bail until the next hearing on Dec. 5, their lawyer Dennis Nyombi said.

Journalists regularly experience legal and political pressure, as well as physical attacks and intimidation in the East African nation.