(RSF/IFEX) – The Ugandan authorities have started shutting down dozens of privately-owned media outlets that have not paid for their operating permits. Officials are targeting about 50 broadcasters throughout the country. Four Kampala-based radio stations and one television station were forced to stop broadcasting on 8 January 2004. “It is reasonable for a government to […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The Ugandan authorities have started shutting down dozens of privately-owned media outlets that have not paid for their operating permits. Officials are targeting about 50 broadcasters throughout the country. Four Kampala-based radio stations and one television station were forced to stop broadcasting on 8 January 2004.
“It is reasonable for a government to ask private media to pay for a permit, but this does not justify the wave of closures that has gotten underway,” said RSF. “Most of the media outlets involved are not commercial stations and do not have the means to pay the tax. The authorities should show more flexibility and find a compromise solution that will not bring about the demise of half of the country’s private radio stations. The Ugandan people will suffer the consequences of this move by being deprived of many of their sources for news,” the organisation noted.
On 8 January, the Broadcasting Council, which regulates television and radio stations in the country, seized the transmitters of four radio stations in the capital, Kampala. The targeted stations were Kampala African Radio, Mama FM, Kampala FM and Top Radio. Top TV television station’s transmitter was also confiscated.
Broadcasting Council spokesman Dennis Lukaaya said the media outlets had not paid their operating permits. He estimated that almost half of the approximate 100 radio stations and three television stations operating in the country were in the same situation.
Private radio stations are expected to pay an annual state tax of 3 million shillings (approx. US$1,500; 1,200 euros). Some of the broadcasters simply do not have the required funds.
Mama FM director Margaret Sentamu told a local daily newspaper that she thought the authorities should make a distinction between commercial radio stations, which broadcast advertisements, and community radio stations, which have no resources of their own. “It is unfair that the Broadcasting Council should impose the same tax on all media,” she said.
The authorities announced that over the next few days, they will continue to close media outlets in the country’s interior that have not paid for operating permits.
