Uganda media covering live Opposition protests to lose licences

The Ugandan government on Thursday banned and then threatened to revoke licences of any media outlet that dares to cover live protests planned by opposition groups in the country.

A statement issued by Ugandan Minister for Information and National Guidance Jim Muhwezi said the planned protests would violate a court order issued last week by the country’s constitutional court.

“All live broadcast of defiance activities should stop. Any media house that continues to cover them risks having their license revoked,” said Muhwezi, a retired major-general in the Uganda People’s Defence Forces.

The decision to block the protests, dubbed “Defiance Campaigns”, was made by the Ugandan cabinet to stop opposition leader Kizza Besigye, the Forum for Democratic Change candidate in the recent presidential election.

Dr Besigye lost the contest, for the fourth time, to President Yoweri Museveni in a vote largely condemned by international observers as not free.

The February 18 vote saw President Museveni, 71, declared winner with 5,617,503 votes, representing 60.75 per cent of 9,246, 563 valid votes cast, while Dr Besigye garnered 3,270,290 votes, representing 35.37 per cent of the valid votes cast.

Dr Besigye subsequently called the results a “fraud.”

Former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, who came third, contested the results in the Ugandan Supreme Court but the judges confirmed President Museveni’s victory.

The Defiance Campaigns were meant to signify that President Museveni was illegitimately elected.

But the Ugandan information minister, once impeached by his parliament over corruption when he served as health minister, argued that the demonstrations cannot continue because there is a court order stopping such activities and that the protests could inhibit the forthcoming inauguration of President Museveni for his fifth term on May 12.

“The continuation of the so-called defiance campaign is illegal because it is in clear breach of the interim court order issued last week,” said the minister, who lost his parliamentary seat in western Uganda in the February elections.

Maj-Gen Muhwezi issued the statement accompanied by Ugandan police chiefs as well as Uganda Communications Commission Executive Director Godfrey Mutabazi and heads of different media houses, perhaps to signify the intent of the decision.

After the 2011 elections, Dr Besigye unsuccessfully organised the "walk-to-work" campaign to protest the poor economic situation in Uganda. The police responded with might, tear-gassing his supporters and arresting him.

This time, though, the opposition and the Uganda Law Society have criticised the order issued by the Constitutional Court, claiming the judge listened to only one side of the case before making a decision.