Kampala — The Daily Monitor and Red Pepper have reopened after their forced closure by Uganda
After being raided by police and closed for eleven days, the two largest media houses in Uganda reopened on Thursday with secret agreements and concessions in place between the owners and the government.
It was a bittersweet victory for journalists and activists who were beaten up and teargassed last week for protesting the media closures.
Their demonstrations might have hastened the reopening of the Daily Monitor, its two affiliate radio stations, KFM and Dembe FM, and the Red Pepper, but it was ultimately negotiations between the media houses and the government that caused the police to walk away.
The media houses' concessions to the government now have observers worried that the media landscape in Uganda may become more repressive than it has been since the presidencies of Milton Obote and Idi Amin.
The 'Muhoozi project'
Since Yoweri Museveni seized power in 1986, he has been praised for liberalising the media and Uganda has typically enjoyed greater press freedom than other authoritarian democracies.
But that narrative has shifted in recent years.
The most popular newspaper in the country, the New Vision, is government-owned, and the largest independent newspaper, the Daily Monitor, is frequently harassed when reporting on corruption, the military, and the first family.
The Daily Monitor was closed in 2002 when it reported that the Lord's Resistance Army rebels shot down a military helicopter, and KFM was switched off in 2005 when a radio presenter insinuated that the Ugandan government was responsible for a helicopter crash that killed Sudanese Vice President John Garang.
The most recent closure was triggered by a Daily Monitor article on 7 May that quoted a letter written by the country's coordinator of security agencies, General David Sejusa, formerly known as Tinyefuza. In his letter, Sejusa accused top leaders of plotting against certain generals to install Museveni's son, Brigadier Muhoozi Kainerugaba, as the country's next leader.
After the letter's publication on 14 May, Daily Monitor reporters and editors were questioned by the police, who demanded that they reveal the source of the leaked letter.
The journalists refused and challenged a court order requiring them to hand over the letter. Six days later, on 20 May, heavily armed police arrived at the Daily Monitor offices with a search warrant and began scouring for Sejusa's letter.
To facilitate the search, the police switched off the radio stations, stopped the printing presses, and ordered all journalists to stop working.
This "overstepped" the search warrant, according to Magistrate Rosemary Bareebe, who ordered the police to vacate the premises and let the Monitor resume operations on 22 May. The police ignored the court order and continued their search for seven more days, slowly sifting through papers while Monitor Publications Limited lost over $500,000 USD in revenue.
An exercise in sensitivity
Ten kilometres away, detectives also searched the offices of the Red Pepper, Uganda's most prominent tabloid, for a press release written by Sejusa's lawyer.
Even though the Red Pepper quickly handed over the press release, the police continued to occupy the tabloid until Richard Tusiime, the CEO of Red Pepper Publications Ltd., met with Hillary Onek, the outgoing Minister of Internal Affairs, on Thursday, 30 May and apologised for the "repeated publishing of false news, unverified stories, harmful propaganda and pornographic materials".
Earlier that morning, Onek announced that the managers of the Daily Monitor had also admitted that there were violations of their editorial policy and that the government would allow the newspaper to reopen under certain conditions.
"They [Monitor] undertook to be sensitive to and not publish or air stories that can generate tensions, ethnic hatred, cause insecurity or disturb law and order," Onek said.
"They undertook to tighten their internal editorial and gatekeeping process to ensure that stories that impact, especially on national security, are subjected to the most rigorous scrutiny and verification process before they run."
The next morning, an editorial on the front page of the Daily Monitor announced that the owners and government had a "meeting of the minds on the place of journalism in a fledgling democracy".
"A newspaper in a country in transition, emerging from a violent past, is different from a newspaper in London or New York," the editorial said.
"Every day we must calculate the impact of what we write, in ways that our colleagues in other, richer parts of the world do not have to do."
In practical terms, this may mean that journalists will shy away from writing stories critical of President Museveni, his family, and security apparatuses.
"You don't talk about the army and you don't talk about his family," Moses Magoola, an officer at the Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda, said. "I can say with regret that Museveni's government has succeeded in containing and controlling the media."
A heartfelt reshuffle
While the independent media houses were shut down for eleven days, President Museveni made "minor changes" to his cabinet and military command, in the words of New Vision.
The two heads of the Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF), Chief of Defense Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima and his deputy, Lt. Gen. Ivan Koreta, were dropped.
Gen. Aronda was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs, a political post that requires him to retire from the army and end his three-decade military career.
He was replaced by Gen. Katumba Wamala, while Lt. Gen. Charles Angina, formerly Chief of Staff of Land Forces, is the new Deputy Chief of Defense Forces. Lt. Gen. Koreta will be sent as an ambassador to a yet-to-be-determined diplomatic post.
These changes are meant to diffuse tension within the UPDF, which Gen. Sejusa warned about in his controversial letter. Gen. Aronda was mentioned in the letter as one of the top generals reportedly against the alleged plan to have Brig. Muhoozi replace his father as president.
Lt. Gen. Koreta also fought in the Bush War alongside Museveni, Sejusa, opposition leaders Kizza Besigye and Mugisha Muntu, and other "historicals". There are now no more "historicals" remaining in the top echelon of the UPDF.
President Museveni's decision to appoint Lt. Gen. Angina as the deputy army boss and Maj. Gen. Wilson Mbadi, the incoming Joint Chief of Staff, is not only seen as a move to replace the "old guard" with young officers, but also to reward those who have shown unwavering loyalty to the president.
Gen. Mbadi is the former Aide De Camp (ADC) to President Museveni while Angina is known for his close ties with the president.
The new Chief of Staff of Land Forces, Brig. Leopold Kyanda, is the former boss of the Presidential Guards, now commanded by the first son, Brig. Muhoozi.
Museveni also made changes to the Media Center, which shares information with, and increasingly oversees, the Ugandan media.
He installed Ofwono Opondo, the former deputy spokesperson of the ruling National Resistance Movement party, as director and Shaban Bantariza, the former military spokesperson, as his deputy.
Putting two experienced "spin masters" at the helm of the Media could be another way for Museveni to tighten his grip on sensitive information relating to politics and the military.
So what's next?
In the few days since reopening, the Monitor and Red Pepper have already begun backing away from sensitive stories.
General Sejusa extended his official visit to London after learning that he could be arrested upon his return to Uganda.
Now in exile, the general wrote another letter to the media on 29 May which he criticised the media closure and demanded that Museveni let him retire so that he can stand for public office.
Neither the Daily Monitor nor New Vision have mentioned this letter.
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Saturday Pepper ran a front-page story about the letter but omitted much of its content, telling readers to find it online because "the letter is so abusive and so stinging, we cannot reproduce it here for legal reasons."
Peter Mwesige, the Executive Director of the African Centre for Media Excellence, said that the lack of coverage of Sejusa's second letter "may be an indication of the chilling effect the closure may have on stories having to do with the military and security".
What's the bigger picture?
As journalists in Uganda face a new dawn, the reasons for the media closure and the Sejusa drama still remain unclear. Some think that Museveni might have been offended by the letter because it mentions his son.
Others think that Museveni has been waiting for an excuse to reign in the Daily Monitor and Red Pepper, whose reporting has been critical of the regime, and to punish them financially.
The closure may also have been a show of strength against Gen. Sejusa, who some accuse of plotting against Museveni. With the clamping down of media freedom in Uganda, it will ultimately be difficult to discern the truth.
Brian Klosterboer is a Fulbright Research Fellow based in Uganda. He is studying the relationship between the media and the military and domestic and international coverage of Uganda's 2009 Anti-Homosexuality Bill. He also works as a journalist for the Daily Monitor. Follow him on Twitter: @bklos90.
Risdel Kasasira is a Ugandan journalist with seven years of experience in journalism. He has reported widely on politics, security and wars in East and Central Africa.
He has been in Somalia many times covering the conflict in the Horn of Africa.
He has also been in South Sudan, Central Africa Republic and DR Congo many times to report on the Ugandan army operations against Lord's Resistance Army rebels and its elusive leader Joseph Kony. He has also reported from the Ugandan Parliament for two years.
