Kasirye Ronald : Opinion: Uganda’s Media Landscape Is Under State Capture

Kasirye Ronald  journalist  CEO of Ronkas Media.

Uganda’s media once roared. Today, it mostly whispers. What changed is not talent or courage, but power: a web of laws, regulators, ownership cartels, and fiscal choke points that has captured the information space—subtly, durably, and by design.

The scoreboard doesn’t lie

Uganda fell to 143rd of 180 countries in the 2025 RSF World Press Freedom Index, with RSF noting tight government control, economic pressure, and a regulator “directly controlled by the government.” RSF also documents threats from top officials and says more than 40 attacks on journalists accompanied the 2021 election cycle.

Laws that muzzle, rules that chill

• Computer Misuse (Amendment) Act, 2022 criminalised “false information” and broadened offences used against critical speech. RSF warned it posed a “grave threat” to press freedom (a key clause was later struck down in early 2023, illustrating how overbroad laws are routinely pushed, then partially pared back only after damage is done

• UCC registration of online publishers (2018–2020): the Uganda Communications Commission ordered all online publishers, bloggers, and online TVs/radios to obtain authorisation—backed by threat of sanctions—an approach repeatedly criticised for entrenching self-censorship. Reports cited a $20 per-year licence and enforcement notices.

When rules can yank your licence (or your staff) at will, editors don’t need a knock on the door to know what not to air.

Regulators as enforcers, not umpires

In May 2019, after coverage of opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, the UCC ordered 13 broadcasters to suspend 39 journalists—a sweeping intervention later challenged in court. The Committee to Protect Journalists and Al Jazeera both documented the directive and the outlets it hit (from NTV and NBS to CBS and Capital FM).

Ahead of the January 2021 general election, government shut down social media and then cut wider internet access, undermining transparency and crippling independent reporting; legal challenges followed at the East African Court of Justice.

Economic capture: tax and throttle

• The notorious “social media tax” (UGX 200/day, July 1, 2018) slashed internet users by five million in three months—from 47% penetration to 35%—according to figures cited by CIPESA, undermining news access and ad-supported media revenues. Government later abandoned the OTT levy in July 2021, replacing it with a 12% data tax that still raises the cost of access.

• Academic work using a synthetic-control design found the tax reduced georeferenced Twitter users by ~13%, with larger effects on poorer and infrequent users—exactly the audiences independent outlets most struggle to reach.

When fewer Ugandans can afford to be online, independent outlets lose audience and oxygen. The result is less scrutiny, more propaganda.

Ownership and patronage: the velvet leash

RSF notes Uganda’s 301 radio stations and dozens of TV channels are “mostly privately owned,” yet many belong to politicians, businesspeople, or pastors aligned with the government. The state broadcaster UBC sets the tone; major private groups like Nation Media (NTV/Daily Monitor) and Next Media (NBS) are prominent but operate under a regulator that answers to the executive—an ecosystem built to reward compliance and punish defiance.

Case studies you can’t unsee

• Monitor siege, 2013: Police raided and shut the Daily Monitor, KFM, and Dembe FM over publication of the “Sejusa letter,” reopening only after heavy pressure. The precedent was clear: cross the red line, lose your presses.

• Red Pepper closure, 2017: Directors and editors were arrested and charged (from offensive communication to publishing information “prejudicial to security”) after a story about Rwanda; equipment was seized and the paper shut for weeks.

The anatomy of capture

Put the pieces together and the pattern is unmistakable:

1. Rulebook control: vague speech crimes + licensing leverage = permanent self-censorship.

2. Administrative coercion: suspensions and summonses that keep editors compliant

3. Economic choke points: taxes and fees that shrink audiences and starve newsrooms.

4. Ownership alignment: politically connected proprietors shape editorial lines.

5. Security overhang: raids, threats, and election-period violence.

That is state capture: not one dramatic seizure, but a thousand calibrated constraints.

What it will take to claw back space

• Strike bad law, hard: Repeal or tightly cabin overbroad speech offences; sunset emergency powers used to police content. (RSF’s analysis and the partial court rollback on Computer Misuse show it’s possible.

• De-weaponise regulation: Put UCC under independent statutory oversight, publish transparent, appealable standards for sanctions, and end prior-authorisation for online speech.

• Undo fiscal throttles: Keep the OTT rollback permanent; scrap the 12% data levy that prices citizens—and journalism—off the internet.

• Diversify revenue: Build reader-membership and diaspora support; use philanthropic and programmatic ad firewalls to reduce capture via state advertising. (RSF flags economic fragility as a systemic press-freedom threat.

• Protect reporters: Fast-track prosecutions for assaults on journalists and codify clear police guidelines during protests and elections.

Ugandans deserve a press that speaks without fear and informs without favour. Until we unwind the legal, regulatory, economic, and patronage levers that now bind it, our “vibrant” media will remain a curated echo—loud enough to look free, quiet enough to stay captured.