Dear readers,
The solution lies in president Museveni or whoever becomes the president in 2011 to start listening to the people they lead.All this arrogance of ‘i can do anything i want as long as I’m in power‘ should stop.Suharto (who came to power in 1966 in Indonesia) also had almost similar media measures as Museveni has put up in Uganda but he was brought down after three decades in power.
For instance,the Kedaulatan Rakyat daily in Yogyakarta was once ordered by telephone (typical in the then popular ‘telephone culture’) not to print reports about the collapse of a stage built over a swimming pool belonging to a bupati (regency head), who had been hosting a traditional ceremonial meal. The incident was caused by a live concert given by a group performing dangdut, a popular local style of music. The second case, also involving the Kedaulatan Rakyat, was a ban on printing news about a plane which crashed in Klaten, a town close to Yogyakarta. They were never told the reason behind the ban.
Suharto did everything in his powers to intimidate the media as we are witnessing today in Uganda but as they say:’even good or bad things come to an end’. As long as a leader does not respect the wishes of the people they lead, then you know we have got a problem.If people want their CBS and its representing the views of the people, then this should not be a problem
Radios were not spared either during Suharto:
1. The editor of CDBS FM in Bali was summoned by the local prosecutor’s office; he was even told to report to that office every day for a period of time. This was due to a prediction by the station that unrest would occur during the forthcoming elections (1997).
I can see this happening to any of the media outlets in Uganda before the 2011 elections. I put my money on Mwenda’s independent after that cartoon trouble that has led to Mwenda being charged with sedition
2. Periodically, the officials from min of information summoned representatives of all private radio stations and informed them of violations. They once accused Radio Arbes and SIPP, its sister station, of misdemeanors without giving a clear explanation or writing an official letter.
This has already happened in Uganda. The govt threatened to ban bimeza in 2002. Several FM presenters have been summoned to the police stations and by the people from the Broadcasting corporation.Radio licences have been revoked every now and then
3.Radio station Dikara Bawana was charged with producing a program that contravened the SARA doctrine. SARA stands for Suku,Agama, Ras, dan Antar Golongan, which means, ‘Ethnicity, Religion, Race, and Groups’. Any discussion of these four issues constituted a very serious taboo on the Indonesia media scene.
I think we have already seen this in Uganda. You discuss federalism as a Baganda wish only may land one in trouble because the 1995 constitution bans journalists from discussing issues that promote any form of tribalism.
The Suharto administration was very serious but the media especially the local ones resisted all these intimidation measures till when the regime was booted out of power.
