Daily Monitor - Uganda Multimedia News & Information

Health Minister denies Ebola outbreak in Uganda

mugisa geofrey — Thu, 31 May 2018 09:02:52 +0000

A team from Doctors Without Borders dons protective clothing and equipment as they prepare to treat Ebola patients in an isolation ward of Mbandaka hospital in Congo

The government of Uganda through State Minister for Health and General Duties, Sarah Opendi, has denied reports of Ebola outbreak in the country.

Earlier reports had indicated that there has been an outbreak in Mubende district, located in central Uganda.

“We would like to inform the public that there is no Ebola outbreak in Mubende District or any other part of the country,” Uganda’s Daily Monitor reported State Minister for Health-General Duties, Sarah Opendi as saying.

Opendi said that the earlier report of Ebola in the media was actually a case of Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF).

“On the night of May 21, a 35-year-old male from Nkoko sub-county in Bugangaizi county, Kakumiro district presented at Melt Care Clinic with a high fever and vomiting and was admitted for two days,” said Opendi

“As his condition deteriorated he was transferred to Mubende Regional Referral Hospital several days later, put in the hospital’s isolation ward and given intravenous fluids. However, he died the same night,” the minister added saying that tissue samples from the deceased were sent to the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI).

“The attendants of the deceased who included his expectant wife and four others were immediately quarantined and they are closely being monitored. To mitigate any possible exposure from contact with the suspect, all material used by the deceased, including a trolley and beddings were burnt,” she added.

Further measures have been taken by the authorities to prevent the spread of CCHF.

VIDEO: No Ebola outbreak in Uganda — health ministry – YouTube

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Red Pepper statement on police closing and deployment at offices

Gerald Businge — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:36:24 +0000

When the Police raided our offices on Monday May 20th, they had a search warrant demanding that we hand over a press release from General Sejusa’s lawyers which we had published the previous week.

We gave them the press release they had asked for but despite that they have continued to search our offices for the same press release for the last four days.

Unable to use our facilities we went to the ‘bush’ and on Wednesday Red Pepper published an edition and outed it on the market.

To our shock, the police pounced on innocent agents and vendors, put them in police detention after destroying copies of Red Pepper’s ‘freedom issue’.

The Uganda police has not only closed off our headquarters but they have gone ahead to deny us our right to publish and trade even after the internal affairs Minister’s statement to parliament that Government has not stopped the besieged newspapers from trading.

We are now forced to believe that the police are intent not on investigating Gen Sejusa’s infamous letter but are focused on financially crippling our company and the hundreds of Ugandans who work here.

This therefore is not a criminal investigation but economic sabotage.

We would like to inform our esteemed readers, advertisers and friends that we are doing everything humanly possible to comply with lawful court orders and request that you remain calm as we invoke the law to force the Uganda Police to allow us our right to trade.

Today, the Police seized more computers from our offices in their unending search.

We demand that the police stop vandalizing our property and immediately vacate our premises.

They have no right to continue denying us our right to do business in Uganda.

Management

Pepper Publications Ltd

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Uganda government condemned for closing newspapers and radio stations in latest media attack

Gerald Businge — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:42:46 +0000

There will be no Daily Monitor or Red Pepper on the streets on Tuesday. Neither are Ugandans able to listen to Nation Media owned Kfm and Dembe fm radio stations. These media houses were today shut down.

Journalists and human rights activists have today condemned the action by the government to close down two newspapers and two radio stations for their reporting on the controversial letter by Gen. David Sejusa.

Police officers today sealed off offices of Daily Monitor, armed with a search warrant. But the search turned into closure as the police led by Criminal Investigations Department Deputy Director Godfrey Musana said the Daily Monitor premises are a crime scene. The police also sealed off offices of Red Pepper, a daily tabloid and declared it a crime scene too.

The security operatives switched off the printeries of the newspapers, as well kfm and Dembe fm to the astonishment of the staff of two media establishments.

“Instead of carrying out the search, the armed men disabled the printing press, computer servers and radio transmission equipment.”“The intention was to prevent the monitor from operating, broadcasting and printing its newspapers. We are horrified by this act, which is a gross disregard of the Ugandan law and a violation of the Monitor’s constitutional right,” said Alex Asiimwe, Daily Monitor’s Managing Director .

In a press statement, Police Spokesperson Judith Nabakooba said the police received intelligence information that there are people who have started scanning signatures of senior government officials “with the intention of using the said signatures on documents claiming they are officials documents from government whereas not.”

The Uganda Journalists Association President Joshua Kyalimpa and the Coordinator of the Uganda Journalists Human Rights Network Wokulira Sebagala issues statements today condemning the government for what they termed as attack on press freedom and freedom of expression.

These events are a result of coverage of Gen. Sejusa’s controversial letter first published by Daily Monitor on May 7. The letter by Gen. Sejusa aka Tinyefuza was written to the Director of the Internal Security Organisation to investment claims that there is a plot to assassinate or link to rebellion senior army and government officials allegedly against “Muhoozi project” an alleged plan to have the president’s son succeed him in State House.

Gen. Sejusa, the coordinator of intelligence agencies is said to have mentioned himself Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, Chief of Defence Forces Aronda Nyakairima among the people being framed.

In an email showed to journalists by a Kampala his lawyer Joseph Luzige, Gen. Sejusa accepted to have written the letter but said he handed it over to the Director of ISO himself and is not sure how it got to journalists.

Here are more articles and documents on the matter

Court orders Daily Monitor journalists to name source– African Center for Media Excellence

Monitor offices under police siege -Daily Monitor

Military officer’s assassination allegations ensnare journalists

‘Warning to media against undermining national security’

Police question Monitor journalists as government moves to gag media

President’s aide storms newspaper office, threatens journalists

Govt is tampering with right to know

ISO agent arrested at Monitor, Gen Tinye’s case goes to court

Oguttu accuses UCC, minister of intimidating journalists

UCC (Uganda Communiction Commision) warning.pdf

Police statement on Daily Monitor Red Pepper premises search 20-05-13.docx

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Why Aghakan forced Daily Monitor’s executive editor David Seppuuya to resign

Walakira — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 17:53:14 +0000

The Executive Editor of Daily Monitor, David Sseppuuya announced on Tuesday that he was leaving the media house after serving it for more than two years. While communicating his decision to the Daily Monitor staff on Tuesday, Seppuuya reportedly said that he was quitting the company for personal reasons and that he was returning to his private work.

But we have been told by the sources in the Daily Nation, the mother company for the Daily Monitor that though Seppuuya is a consummate professional in journalism, the top most managers of the Aghakan foundation where Daily Monitor dwells were not so thankful for his contribution to the company’s growth.

Sources say that Aghakan foundation is not happy that Daily Monitor is no longer breaking up stories the way it used to do in the past. According to sources, Aghakan wonders how the government owned newspapers: The New Vision and Bukedde could break powerful stories which Daily Monitor can no longer break. The same sources further told us that even the new media houses in Uganda like the Daily Red Pepper (Uganda’s fastest growing tabloid), the Weekly Observer plus on line media houses such as weinformers.net and ugpulse.com can break up powerful stories daily than the Daily monitor thus the cause for dismissal of some of the Daily Monitor staff. The same sources told our informers that Aghakan wants Daily Monitor to be one of the media houses in East and central Africa that could break up powerful news stories and the rest of the media houses in the region sneezes.

The managing editor of the Daily Monitor in charge of weekend editions, Fredrick Masiga is also leaving the company in a month’s time perhaps due to the same reasons pushing Seppuuya out of the media house.

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Justice Faith Mwondah sues Daily Monitor for defamation

Gerald Businge — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:57:39 +0000

Former Inspector General of Government and currently a high court judge Faith Mwondha has dragged the Monitor Publications Ltd, the editor of Sunday Monitor and Emmanuel Gyezaho accusing them of defaming her.

Mwondha says she is aggrieved by the two defaming articles published in the Sunday Monitor newspaper in August 2007, indicating that she was fraudulently receiving two salaries, one as IGG and another as a judge.

She says that the said articles showed that government had commission an investigation against her and a report had been made recommending that she should be sacked and prosecuted for offences of corruption and abuse of office.

Mwondha is seeking for general and aggravated damages and also an injunction restraining the respondents, their servants and agents from publishing such false and malicious statements against her.

She also wants court to order them pay costs of the suit. Mwondha has filed the suit through Omunyokoo and Company advocates.

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Andrew Mwenda resignation letter from Daily Monitor, accuses owner Aga Khan of interference in editorial

Gerald Businge — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 10:14:35 +0000

August 16th 2007

T he Managing Director
Monitor Publications Ltd

Dear Mr. Tom Mushindi

RE: RESIGNATION

This is to formally inform you that I have decided to resign from being a Political Editor of Daily Monitor newspaper and from being a radio talk-show host on KFM. I have considered your request to return to Monitor and decided against it.

I have also considered your request that I at least resume writing my Sunday column and again decided that I should take more time before I accept to do so. Since I have been on unpaid leave from Monitor for a long while now, I would like my resignation to take immediate effect.

I have worked at Monitor since January 1994; first as a student intern during my first year as a student of journalism at Makerere University and since September 1996 as a full time employee. In fact, I am currently the longest serving journalist at the newspaper. During this period, I served Monitor with dedication and integrity.

Almost every year of my work at Monitor, I won a certificate of excellence. I broke the biggest stories in the country, hosted the greatest names on radio and in many cases even attracted the largest advertisements. Monitor readers and KFM listeners responded generously to my articles and radio shows because I upheld our core values of independence, truth, accuracy, courage and balance.

Monitor was for me more than a workplace. It was more importantly an institution that embodied the values that I cherish dearly freedom, liberty, independence and professional journalism. The founders of Monitor did not begin the newspaper for money. They did so to create a platform through which Ugandans could freely and openly debate public issues. This attracted me to Monitor. Over the years, Monitor faced many threats from the state as a business. However, at no one time did the founders sacrifice its core values and heritage to safeguard it as a business.

In fact, many of us suffered state harassment, went to jail and spent years in court on criminal trials for defending free expression in Uganda. Right now I am personally facing 15 criminal charges for expressing myself freely.

Journalist Andrew Mwenda

It is our firm stand in defence of liberty that inspired many people and brought us readers and listeners. These gave us revenue and attracted advertisers which made the company successful as a business. By placing our core values above commercial concerns, we created a public space that many Ugandans, many of them in high government offices, came to value dearly.

However, during my fellowship year at Stanford University, I was saddened to learn that the major shareholder, Mr. Karim Al-Hussaini (commonly known as The Aga Khan) unilaterally suspended my articles from being published in Daily and Sunday Monitor.

Although the board of directors revoked the decision, I am not convinced that Monitor can regain its independence. I have consulted widely and thought deeply about Mr. Al-Hussainis arbitrary directive and reached a conclusion that the editorial environment at Monitor is no longer conducive to free and unfettered debate of public issues in the country especially the presidency.

The interference of the major shareholder in the editorial details of the newspaper is a tragic development. This is especially so because of his other business interests in the country. He has increasingly undermined the papers editorial independence and its contribution to democracy and accountability in our country.

I have been informed by journalists and editors that they are not allowed to write stories critical of the president and his family. The air in the editorial rooms is suffocating. I hold the values of independence from the state so dearly that I cannot work in such an environment.

In sending his directive, Mr. Al-Hussaini was abusing his powers as a major shareholder. Media shareholders are not supposed to deliberately undermine the professional independence of media organisations.

Mr. Al-Hussaini can only do this in Africa because somehow, anyone who is anything on our continent tends to act with impunity. A president steals from and kills his own citizens. An investor makes decisions about the company and disregards shareholders, employees and the values and the heritage of the organisation.

That has been the persistent message of disillusionment on our continent! I have done some consultations and learnt that Mr. Hussaini did not consult other shareholders in both Nation Media Group and in Monitor Publications Limited who actually hold the majority shares in both companies before sending his directive. He did not even consult the board of directors of NMG in Nairobi, nor of MPL in Kampala.

This arbitrary use of power is symptomatic of the way Mr. Museveni has been ruling Uganda and what I have been critical of. Does Mr. Al Hussaini think that only his interests matter and those of other shareholders dont? Does he think that MPL employees are not stakeholders in the company even if they are not shareholders?

Doesnt he consider the aspirations of the Ugandan people? Africa has seen many investors who traded blood diamonds, gold, Colton, oil etc as the countries in which they made huge profits collapsed under the weight of ethnic strife, civil war and abject poverty. I hope that Mr. Al-Hussaini has taken lessons from that experience.

I have also learnt that the instructions from Paris are that Monitor should desist from writing about the first family. I have been reliably informed that Mr. Museveni had a meeting with Mr. Al-Hussaini and another with the executives of Nation from Nairobi. In both meetings, Mr. Museveni showed them an article I had written before leaving for Stanford titled Isnt the first family fleecing us?

The article laid bare incontrovertible evidence on how the state in Uganda has been turned into a private estate of Mr. Museveni. I am reliably informed that Mr. Museveni requested both Mr. Al-Hussaini and the Nation executives not only to stop my articles from being published in Daily Monitor, but for me to be fired from the company.

Sometime in 2006, Mr. Museveni addressed a meeting of the Central Executive Committee of his ruling party. He told them that he had defeated the opposition in Uganda and that both the FDC and Dr. Kizza Besigye were in disarray. Mr. Museveni then said the only remaining opposition is Andrew Mwenda.

He is the only one who uses facts and figures to challenge our policies and programs in the newspapers and on his radio show. How can this one boy hold us at ransom? Museveni challenged his party colleagues. He then promised that if the NRM cannot challenge me intellectually, he will seek to silence me from the Ugandan public debate.

These developments are important. They should have been sufficient evidence that in the absence of a strong opposition political party, Monitor provides the most effective public forum through which alternative ideas, policies and programs can be debated in our country. But it also shows that Monitor needs to be bolder; to pry more into the activities of Mr. Museveni in his efforts to personalise the state. Instead, Monitor is being forced by one shareholder to cover-up the decay taking place in our country.

In return, the major shareholder is given more investment deals in Uganda. I am a citizen of Uganda, not a mercenary. I therefore cannot betray the future of my country in order to retain the privilege of working or writing for Monitor. The future of Uganda is more than anything that money can buy.

Mr. Museveni has always employed blackmail to get his way. He has severally threatened to close Monitor in order to force the paper to lose its editorial independence. He closed Nation TV for two months in order to force Mr. Al Hussaini to clump down on Monitors independence.

While I respect the interest of Mr. Al-Hussainis to increase his investment in Uganda, I despise his attempts to do so at the expense of freedom, liberty and democracy in our country. Indeed, only a democratic dispensation can guarantee the security of his property rights in Uganda. Succumbing to blackmail only makes him more vulnerable to more blackmail not only in Uganda, but the East African region.

For example, what will happen if Daily Nation in Kenya publishes an article unfavourable about Mr. Museveni? Wont Mr. Museveni threaten to close Monitor or KFM or Nation TV in Uganda in order to force Mr. Al-Hussaini to clump down on Nation in Kenya? Totalitarian control does not come in a gallop, but in a creep.

Before long, Mr. Museveni may be encouraged to employ his blackmail to influence the media coverage of presidential and parliamentary elections in Tanzania and Kenya. Mr. Al-Hussaini is setting a dangerous precedent in our region. Indeed, his business interests and monopoly of the media in this region may threaten our emerging democracies.

When I visited Monitor, the air in the newsroom and other editorial rooms smelt terrible. Reporters are afraid to write stories because they are unsure of the consequences. A previously proud, ambitious and highly intelligent crop of independent journalists have been intimidated into acquiescing to the machinations of an illegitimate regime. A thriving and independent media house has been turned into a supplicant of a corrupt, tribal and nepotistic dictatorship.

Because Monitor has succumbed to bribes and intimidation from the state, it is no longer the institution I was once proud to serve. It has lost its soul. It has betrayed its readers and listeners. It has betrayed Uganda. It has betrayed Africa. It has betrayed the cause of liberty and freedom. It has betrayed humankind. I cannot be an accomplice to this death of a dream whether because of state intimidation or of sweet heart business deals between the chief of state and the major shareholder. To do so would be identical to the action of Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

As you take on this challenging job, I would advise you to seriously consider your own position at Monitor. You are a highly respected journalist with international credibility. It will be tragic if you go down in history as the man who presided over the adulteration of an independent newspaper in Uganda that was setting an example for the rest of Africa. It will also be tragic when you fall like many other Africans, especially the politicians, who have sacrificed the future of this continent at the Alter of a job.

I feel very proud of the contribution Monitor has made to Ugandas faltering democracy. I also feel proud of my contribution to Uganda through Monitor. Monitor made me who I am, and it will remain a cherished institution in my heart. I thus leave Monitor not with any bitterness, but with a lot of pride in what we stood for.

But I also leave with a lot of disappointment. It is tragic that the business interests of one person the major shareholder have so gravely trampled the interests of all other shareholders and the aspirations of the people of Uganda for freedom and accountability.

I wish Monitor good luck and hope that it will find the wherewithal to rehabilitate its damaged reputation in the hearts of the people of Uganda. I hope that you will be able to convene a joint meeting of the board of NMG and MPL to discuss the increasing interference of the major shareholder in the editorial work of monitor.

As for me, I can never betray the cause of liberty. Liberty is an ideal for which I am willing to live for, work for to see strengthened and if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

Sincerely

Andrew M. Mwenda

cc. Linus Gitahi NMG CEO
cc. Wangethi Mwangi, NMG ED
cc. Martha Elimu, HR Manager
cc. HR Director, NMG
cc. Peter Kimanthi, FC
cc. Joachim Buwembo, ME
cc. Peter Kaba, Radio Manager
cc. MPL Board
cc. NMG Board

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Challenges and Opportunities of reporting and communicating agricultural and rural development issues in Uganda

Gerald Businge — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:36:56 +0000

Insights from a research paper By Gerald Businge and Risdel Kasasira presented at CTA Media Conference in Brussels, Belgium in October 2009 on The role of the media in agricultural and rural development of Africa Caribbean and Pacific countries.

Introduction: Media Coverage of Agriculture and Rural Development Issues

This paper is informed by findings of a study carried out by Ultimate Media Consult on the coverage of agriculture issues in Uganda’s two leading newspapers, both of whom have provided dedicated space to agriculture issues.

The New Vision www.newvision.co.ug , which has been having two farming pages every Wednesday for the past more than 10 years was convinced about the need to have more agriculture covered. Between four and six mostly news stories are reported weekly by the government owned newspaper. It took the intervention of International Women Media Forum to get the Aga Khan owned Daily Monitor www.monitor.co.ug to dedicate weekly space to agricultural reporting. Daily Monitor has published these stories every Wednesday since getting this funding.

Daily Monitor newspaper

While many stories have been covered under the dedicated weekly reporting by the two newspapers, agriculture still remains poorly covered compared to business, politics, crime, entertainment and health.

Objectives of the study on media coverage of agriculture

v To find out the nature, quantity and quality of reporting of agriculture in Uganda

v Identify challenges and solutions towards better coverage of agriculture issues

v To establish if and how farmers are benefiting from the media coverage of agriculture.

v To propose measures that can be used to inform greater coverage and communication of agriculture and rural development issues.

Media in Uganda

The media in Uganda has undergone rapid growth in the last twenty years. With the liberalization of the communication sector in the 1990s, Uganda has got over 200 FM radio stations, 20 Television channels and 10 newspapers and magazines. New Media or Online journalism is still green in the country because of limited internet capabilities (broadband is being connected).

The newspapers that include New Vision, Daily Monitor, Red Pepper and The Observer are the most influential part of print media in Uganda.

These major newspapers of Uganda are published in English. Apart from the major Ugandan newspapers there are a number of regional newspapers in Uganda which are published in various regional languages of Uganda. Thus it is seen that Uganda newspapers provide a wide range of news.

Findings on Media output Vis agriculture

*Dedicated coverage has resulted in more coverage of agriculture issues.

*But dedicated coverage has seen agriculture issues delegated to “their sections” and not in major news e.g. front page

*Of the three surveyed newspapers, there was no reporter specializing in agricultural reporting.

*Despite having all these media outlets, agriculture and rural development issues are still poorly covered compared to other beats like politics, entertainment, business, health and sports.

This can be explained by the covering pattern of agriculture compared to other beats.

Example

In the last eight months, New Vision ran has run three, Red Pepper has zero and Weekly Observer has not run any on their front page news. Almost all the articles on Daily Monitor front page are political (530), business (8), sports (4), health (14), entertainment (3) agriculture (0), environment (4)

News type/beat	Number of stories
Politics	530
Business	8
Sports	4
Entertainment	3
Agriculture	0
Environment	4

Table showing front page story distribution by beat in Daily Monitor from January 2009 to August 2009
Next Page

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