Radio station closed

I could not resist to comment on it: It sucks. I get sick. It really contradicts all my liberal ideas. How can you close a radio station?

Monitor's Kfm radio closed

THE Broadcasting Council (BC) yesterday indefinitely closed Kampala’s K-FM radio station, a subsidiary of the Monitor Publications, saying it breached sections of the electronic media law.

At 4:18pm, K-FM, formerly Monitor FM, was closed. The last item to be aired was a song, Ndiku Digi by Ngoni.

The radio was taken off air as the programme, The Edge, was running.

Before the song, Conrad Nkutu, the Managing Director of The Monitor Publications, read on air the letter from BC secretary Okullu-Mura.

The letter, titled ‘Suspension of broadcasting license’, said, “Following receipt of numerous complaints and listening to the recording of your programme, Andrew Mwenda live of August 10, 2005 aired between 7:00pm and 8:00pm, the Broadcasting Council has discovered that the programme offends the minimum broadcasting standards enshrined in the first Schedule of the Electronic Media Cap 104/2000.

“The Broadcasting Council has decided to accordingly and with immediate effect suspend your broadcasting licence in order to carry out further investigations into the matter.”

The letter, served by two BC officials, was copied to the minister of state for information and the Inspector General of Police, Katumba Wamala.

“As a law-abiding company, we have chosen to comply and we shall proceed to take KFM off air as we pursue the matter with government authorities,” Nkutu said after reading the letter and then apologised to advertisers.

He said the closure was unexplained and lacked legal authority. “We shall do everything possible to return to air,” he said, adding that he was surprised by the closure because Mwenda was yesterday due to host the state minister for information, Dr. Nsaba Buturo.

Earlier on, Buturo told The New Vision that the BC had visited K-fm station to collect the recorded programme where on Wednesday Mwenda hosted presidential assistant on political affairs Moses Byaruhanga and Aswa MP Reagan Okumu.

The topic that night was, “Can government justify today’s public holiday?”

Wednesday was a public holiday in honour of seven Ugandans who died alongside Sudanese First Vice-President Dr. John Garang in a helicopter crash on July 30.

During the national prayers at Kololo Airstrip, President Yoweri Museveni referred to Mwenda as a small boy and blasted him for reportedly publishing stories prejudicial to regional security and ordered him to stop henceforth lest he clamps down on The Monitor newspaper.

The BC action triggered a mixed reaction from the staff at the Monitor headquarters in Namuwongo, a Kampala city suburb. While some looked pensive, contemplating their next move, many just laughed off the move, saying it was expected. Others mingled with journalists from other media houses who had gone there to pick the news.

While all this was going on, an apparently disturbed Mwenda was swaying in a black leather swivel chair on the fourth floor that houses Nkutu’s office. Sources said he was under strict orders not to talk to the press.

Sources said the Government was angered by Mwenda’s statements that were interpreted as demeaning the person of the President and the presidency.

During the prayers at Kololo on Wednesday, Museveni threatened to close newspapers for meddling in security issues.

On the talk-show, Mwenda said, “We shall be playing the voice of Mr. Yoweri Museveni in his attack on me and I am going to launch a counter-attack on him.” He then played a sound bite from Museveni’s speech:

“I am the elected leader of Uganda, I therefore have the ultimate mandate to run its affairs. Now, I will not tolerate a newspaper which is like a vulture. When people are crying, the vultures are happy. Any newspaper which plays about with regional security, I will not tolerate.

“I have been seeing this young boy, Mwenda, writing about Rwanda, writing about Sudan, writing about the UPDF, he must stop. And this other paper called The Observer, (writing) what has been said in the army. ... this is not how a country is run. Red Pepper also, I thought those were young boys busy with naked girls, now if they have gone into regional security, they must stop. These newspapers must stop or we shall stop them from writing. If they want to continue doing business in Uganda, they must stop interfering in security matters.”

Mwenda then shot back, “First of all, no one is going to stop, at least me, I am not going to stop. If he closes the newspaper and I am out of the job, I will seek his job. I will get him out of Nakasero (State House), take him to Rwakitura (Museveni’s country home)...If the man wants me to vie for his job, let him come and close the Monitor,” Mwenda said as he chuckled away.

Byaruhanga tried to interrupt him, “Fine, you continue doing what you are doing and wait and see.” But Mwenda retorted, “Does your president know that he has no power to close a newspaper for even one day? Does he know that he has no legal power? I think Museveni’s problem is, he is seated in State House where all of you in the movement, he says jump and you ask ‘how high?’, shout and you ask ‘how loud?’”

In a spirited defence, which turned out to be a shouting contest, Byaruhanga said the President would not close the papers personally but had asked the Attorney General to look into the matter.

Moments later, Mwenda moved onto the demise of Garang. Pinned by Byaruhanga that some of his articles posed a security threat, Mwenda replied:

“Are you saying it is The Monitor which caused the death of Garang? Or it’s your own mismanagement. Garang’s security was put in danger by your own government. Putting him, first of all, on a junk helicopter. Second, at night, third, passing through Imatong hills, and you know that Kony has stinger missiles, surface-to-air missiles, five, when there was bad weather.

“But are you aware that Garang died on the Imatong hills where you have always complained Kony is? Are you aware that your government killed Garang through incompetence? You caused the death of the man out of incompetence,” Mwenda charged, prompting Byaruhanga to interject, “I would rather you withdraw that.”

“I can never withdraw that. If the Police call me, I will say the government of Uganda, out of incompetence, led or caused the death of John Garang. They put him on the plane when it was already late. The President said that plane has the capacity to detect bad weather 100km away. Why couldn’t they detect the bad weather...?” Mwenda asked.

SOURCE
Author: Emmy Allio and Steven Candia
Published in The New Vision on: Friday, 12th August, 2005