Private media is a special business

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has responded to the decision for all government advertising to be directed through the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) and New Vision with a protest letter to the powers that be. The directive in respect of the budget execution circular for the financial year 2023/2024 dated July 10, is something to push back on.

Joseph Beyanga, writing on behalf of NAB cites unfairness and contradiction with constitutional provisions and strategy for private sector development. I wonder how many broadcasters will comply with a blackout of reporting on government activities as indicated. Still, the engagement is certainly going to be worthwhile, if the leadership can listen.

For years, there have been efforts towards promoting evidence-based decision making in governments across the globe. These efforts are cognizant of the practice in some countries, where the wishes of the head of state or influential politicians quickly evolve into public policy with little or no evidence that they are acting in the public interest.

There is still limited reference to research in decision making with far reaching implications. Some of the critical issues our policy makers could have taken note of included the findings that the political environment under which Ugandan media operate is quite complex. On one hand, there are constitutional guarantees, freedom of expression and media freedom as well as adoption of international and regional instruments that provide for the same. 

On the other hand, news media organisations continue to operate in restrictive contexts which have seen bolder organisations threatened and in some instances shut down for periods of time. The authors noted that threats to free expression and freedom of the media in Uganda have been incremental as the regime of President Museveni stretches over its fourth decade. 

There are events in our political space that lend an ear to this finding. What was further interesting was the researchers’ findings regarding the economics of media in Uganda in comparison to those of Kenya and Tanzania. Many media houses were deemed to be financially-unviable, a fact that for us has translated into poor pay for journalists, poor working conditions, women leaving the newsroom and compromise of quality journalism.

For a decision to deny private media advertisement, it ought to have taken into account the impact on news media organisations generally. The authors of that study also noted that Uganda’s economy was fairly small and the  country remains among the poorest in the world, forcing most media to depend on government advertising and unqualified personnel.

They further noted that whereas Uganda has a comparably high number of radio stations on air in the region, their viability is challenged by high competition for limited advertising money. In addition, there is growing competition from online and social media, while community radio stations in Uganda face constraints in their financial longevity as they majorly rely on donor support.

One can only imagine, the impact of a decision to restrict advertising to the public broadcaster and New Vision on the multiplicity of radio stations and struggling community media, most of which are the real source of news in communities outside the cities. Our national media is often not so national in reach and coverage. Some of these     impacts may not be immediate, but as night follows day, they will be felt some day.

It is not the first time, a national far reaching directive is being implemented for media. There was the one that centralised government advertising. Then, in 2018, we had to deal with the over-the-top tax, widely known as social media tax, when President Museveni tried to personally deal with gossip on social media. 

After a few years, the tax was dropped, perhaps having realised that there was not much to be achieved by taxing citizens trying to socialise with a few doing business on social media. I wish we had a national survey to tell us how much less we are gossiping these days having gone through that phase. Ideally, a national broadcaster should not be taking adverts from the government that funds it, but other mechanisms put in place to ensure its financial viability.

Private media although profit making, is a special kind of business. Information is a public good so media ought to be treated differently. Its regulation should bear in mind its unique place and look beyond protection from harm to enabling media performance.

Ms Maractho (PhD) is the director of Africa Policy Centre and senior lecturer at Uganda Christian University.                       [email protected]