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Presidential candidates should look beyond traditional media
I read a tweet from Dr Kizza Besigye legitimately complaining about media injustice to some of the presidential hopefuls contesting against the ruling NRM presidential candidate, who by a stroke of a pen, or dial by its executive director through public institutions like Uganda Communication Commission (UCC), both private and public media houses, bow in fear of losing broadcasting rights/licences, and individual editors, hosts and reporters are intimidated with arrests and job loss.
A number of examples of media clampdown by the State can be drawn from the unfashionable intimidation to media houses and journalists who covered and/or participated in non-violent demonstrations against injustices and bad laws such as Over the Top (OTT) tax.
This is enough to explain a proposition that traditional media is vulnerable to State captivity and the solution to this lies in reliance on social media and Internet-based media platforms that are able to beat government regulatory and technical tools of censorship and manipulation.
In this election, you can already see where the weights of injustice are inclined and that will not change tomorrow. The Supreme Court of this land in presidential electoral petition No.1 o 2016 recognised that the issue of unequal media coverage of State media has been a recurrent one in previous election petitions.
In my opinion, any wait for another court reproach is for legal purpose, but a political defeat for lack of alternative strategy, more especially in this digital age.
However much electronic media as a campaigning dais is overly and disproportionately regulated, I am inclined to believe it is the best alternative to the traditional media.
Whereas traditional media has a big coverage compare to electronic media, later is comparatively not just about consuming content, but sharing it, passing it on, and adding to it and this makes it more efficient.
National Unity Platform (NUP) presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine and his team are popular both online and offline for either understanding and utilisation of the cyber space and tools. May be the team at Kamwokya should thank police for blocking it from accessing radios and TVs, in the alternative, they have diligently and unsparingly exploited the cyber space to communicate to the electorate.
Therefore, electronic media may not just be an alternative, but a model in a country like Uganda. Expecting balanced coverage from State-captured traditional media is to ask for too much.
Morgan Muhindo,
[email protected]
