Some notes on state of the media in Uganda

With the advent of social media, we are all journalists. One only has to do good journalism. And what is good journalism? Good journalism is that which benefits the community (in whose service journalism claims subsistent existence).

Because the mass communicators on social media would like to be of service to the people, most of their content tends to be promotional, advocacy, activism for (or of) whatever causes of personal espousal.

I personally used to treat social media as casual and unserious. I once wrote that after the constitutional amendment, ‘Mr Museveni now enjoys life eligibility for presidential candidature. A journalist friend associated with the NRM thought I meant ‘life presidency’ and took me to school. He taught me how one becomes president in Uganda. My timeline was like a battleground with comments (some verging on the abusive) flying hither and thither over what I thought was a simple matter.

The simple was that Mr Museveni was eligible to be a presidential candidate until he dies. But some ‘commenters’, with a very high sense triumphalism, claimed to have taken my journalist friend to school for his failure to understand the difference between ‘candidate’s life eligibility’ and being a president for life.

Whereas I may put up with practicing journalists making partisan remarks (or what may be construed to be partisan remarks) on social media, I would expect that they are sophisticated and clear enough to make remarks that appeal to a higher political deportment and thought.

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Enter cartoonist Dr Spire and his twitter activism. I lead a small group of people who carry out political structured information sourcing. We treat ourselves as public (community) service providers because we share this information with people in positions of decision making.

We can now report to the public that in addition to his cartoons, Dr Spire’s twitter campaign against potholes in Kampala and the poor service delivery in the health sector had an impact on the decision makers. Some people might think that Mr Museveni’s response on the issue of potholes is what I am talking about. No no. I am talking about the fear of a new frontline peopled by the elite challenging government on what it should be doing.

We are familiar with government’s banning of Meta’s facebook from operating in Uganda. But Ugandans are still active on facebook as if government’s blocking of facebook never happened. That means the government might find itself rendered ineffective on this digital platforms (frontline).

What endears me to Dr Spire is that he is clearly apolitical. And that whatever he is involved in falls within his call and responsibility as a bona fide citizen. Yet we must appreciate his advocacy is unsettling the establishment. Worse, he is using a platform that may not be easy for the state to control.

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Initially, journalism was about reportage. But the new trend is that journalism is no longer a passive rapporteur  but an active estate of the national institutions of public service (service to the public).

So, the struggle between state actors like the coercive arms of the state (and political leaders who direct those arms) is about influencing public opinion. The coercive institutions are just attack dogs of the political leadership. It is not whether the journalists support this or that particular political group.

By 1996, the media had gained a socio-politically acceptable stature and influence in policy and public interest issues. Most of the people who contribute to the Op-Ed pages and those who put in a tv appearance are mature and qualified to be national leaders in their own right. Oh yes, Dr Spire falls in this category.

Mr Bisiika is the executive editor of the East African Flagpost. [email protected]