UGANDA’s STATE SPONSORED MEDIA BIAS

UGANDA’s STATE SPONSORED MEDIA BIAS

When the scientific election road map was announced by the Chairman of the Electoral Commision Justice Simon Byabakama, it was met with skepticism and resistance from the opposition because it’s common knowledge that President Museveni and the NRM administration have a firm grip on the Ugandan media.

It’s therefore not surprising that in the months following this announcement, NRM coverage has dominated Uganda’s media houses while opposition leaders like Hon. Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi is currently in court seeking justice after being denied access to speaking on a radio station.

The media bias is so blatant that Ugandans recently witnessed the NRM CEC internal elections aired live on numerous media outlets including a Speech by President Museveni to NRM delegates broadcast to the whole nation.

Uganda ranks 125th out of 180 in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index. That metric is a reflection of the degree of media freedom, safety, independence and the liberty journalists have to do their job without fear. This is one of Uganda’s lowest scores since the country was ranked 139th in 2012.

In Uganda like many autocracies, control of the media is an essential component of maintaining regime stability. When you control the media, you control the masses. As a result, Museveni operates a semi-free media state by letting journalists operate as long as they broadcast favorable coverage of the regime to the nation.

Control of the media in Uganda is facilitated through the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), the government’s regulatory body that oversees the licensing of the country’s media houses. This body on several occasions flexes its political muscles, shutting down media houses as well as engaging in direct censorship of media content critical of the NRM government.

The government also weaponized Uganda's Communications Act of 2013 with ambiguous laws instructing media houses to refrain from airing content that distorts facts or incites public insecurity or violence. This law is used to shut down, intimidate, conduct threats of firing or arrest of any journalists that host opposition leaders or air programs critical of President Museveni and NRM.
The great equalizer that has changed the world has been social media. This has enabled opposition to broadcast their political events live without the filters of the compromised mainstream media outlets. At the moment it’s the primary option available for the opposition in Uganda to reach voters though it has some limitations regarding the inability to reach a larger audience as well as shaping the national election narrative.
It’s a tragedy for Uganda that our journalists have succumbed to the forces of the regime at a time when the country needs a free, independent and balanced media. When the electoral commission declared that campaigns would exclusively happen on media, NRM party never opposed the roadmap because they knew it was their home field advantage operating under a State controlled media.

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Dr. Daniel Kawuma
Washington D.C (US)
busuulwakawuma@gmail.com