A leading East African \u200cmedia group whose outlets in Uganda were\u00a0shut down\u00a0at the weekend by soldiers is in talks with the military to reopen, with staff still unable to access offices, the organisation\u2019s managing director in the country told Reuters.<\/p>\n
The closure of \u200bsix newspapers and radio and TV stations owned by Kenya-headquartered Nation Media Group (NMG)\u00a0has triggered protests \u200bfrom human rights group Amnesty International and prompted a senior U.S. lawmaker to \u2060urge Washington to review its security relationship with Uganda.<\/p>\n
Uganda’s military chief\u00a0Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is also President Yoweri \u200bMuseveni’s son, ordered the shutdown of the Daily Monitor and NTV Uganda on Sunday, saying they would \u200bnot reopen without his permission. He did not give specific reasons for their closure.<\/p>\n
Justine Kasule Lumumba, the minister for ICT and National Guidance, said the events that led to the disruption of NMG’s operations arose from a security-led inquiry that \u200bMuseveni had ordered.<\/p>\n
“The inquiry involves the Uganda People’s Defence Forces, the Criminal Investigations Directorate of the … police, \u200bother security agencies and experts,” she said in a statement.<\/p>\n
NMG’s closure is the latest restriction on freedoms ordered by Kainerugaba, \u200cwho \u2060has been touted as a possible successor to his ageing father. He is well known for his incendiary social media posts and\u00a0death threats\u00a0against critics, including Uganda’s main opposition leader Bobi Wine.<\/p>\n
“Negotiations are ongoing at different levels for reopening,” Susan Nsibirwa, managing director for NMG in Uganda, said, adding that military personnel had \u200bsurrounded the offices.<\/p>\n
Kainerugaba had \u200bsaid on X late \u2060on Sunday that discussions were underway about reopening the outlets. Uganda’s military spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Amnesty said at least six outlets \u200bwere shut down by the military, including the Daily Monitor, NTV, Dembe FM, \u200bSpark TV, \u2060KFM and The East African.<\/p>\n
“The president’s son continues his unchecked and unjust campaign of harassment and intimidation of independent media and civil society,” Amnesty’s East and Southern Africa director, Tigere Chagutah, said in a statement on Monday.<\/p>\n
U.S. \u2060Senate \u200bForeign Relations Committee Chair Jim Risch said on X that \u200bthe United States should review its security relationship with Uganda, adding Kainerugaba’s attacks on free speech, including shuttering major media houses, made \u200bhim and the Ugandan military “unfit partners”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A leading East African \u200cmedia group whose outlets in Uganda were\u00a0shut down\u00a0at the weekend by soldiers is in talks with the military to reopen, with staff still unable to access offices, the organisation\u2019s managing director in the country told Reuters. The closure of \u200bsix newspapers and radio and TV stations owned by Kenya-headquartered Nation Media […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21255,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":4,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,2362,33,34],"tags":[5232,5231,5233,132],"class_list":["post-21254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-africa","category-featured","category-politics","category-society","tag-daily-monitor","tag-nation-media-group-nmg","tag-ntv-uganda","tag-uganda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21256,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21254\/revisions\/21256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}