cast stations have been described
 as a great example of vibrant
 media in a region where until the
'winds of change' of the 1990' s, the media had
largely remained either government mouth-
pieces or opposition outlets that dared estab-
lishments often with bitter consequences.
Today, coverage that is critical of the gov-
ernment is almost the norm in independent
newspapers while their government-owned
counterparts are not just about reproducing
official pronouncements as was so often the
case in the past. On radio, irreverent political
call-in talk shows are the dominant by-product
of the liberalisation of the airwaves.
But not all that glitters is gold. Ask Belgian
journalist and author Els de Temmerman.
On 1 December 2006, Ms de Temmerman


biggest newspaper, announcing in her "con-
tract with the public" that she was "not terribly
worried about press freedom in Uganda".
Admittedly, she also wrote that she had
requested for "sufficient guarantees of my edi-
torial independence" and only accepted thejob
after receiving these guarantees in writing.
The New Vision started as a government-
owned newspaper 22 years ago. Although it is
listed on the stock exchange (the government
had relinquished 20 per cent of its shares to the
public by the time de Temmerman took over,
and another 27 per cent more recently), the
government appoints the company's board,
chief executive, and editor-in-chief, and, it is
widely believed, meddles in the newspaper's
political coverage. However, The New Vision
has remained a lot more balanced and per-
formed excellently commercially than govern-


1*r


ment newspapers elsewhere on the continent.
On October 24, just shy of two years on the
job, Ms de Temmerman resigned from The
New Vision because she could "no longer count
on the assurances" of "editorial independence"
that she had been given when she took on the
job. Insiders said de Temmerman had resigned
after a heated exchange with the company's
chief executive, Robert Kabushenga, over
the paper's coverage of President Yoweri
Museveni. Apparently, State House expected
more prominent displays of pictures and sto-
ries about the President.
The reaction generated by the resignation
would suggest that 'political pressure' from an
establishment that wants to get a free pass in the
news is the biggest challenge for the country's
news media. Indeed, in recent years the biggest
local and international news on the Ugandan
media has been the reported government pres-
sure on the Aga Khan to rid the independent
Monitor newspaper of 'hostile' (read critical of
the government) managers and journalists. The
Aga Khan's interests in the region include the
Nation Media Group (NMG), which owns the
majority shares in Monitor Publications Ltd,
the publishers of Daily Monitor and Sunday
Monitor, as well as proprietors of KFM radio
station and the television station NTV.
Early last year, NTV was shut down by the
government for nearly two months in what


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