Musaazi NAMITI
The Weekend Monitor spiked a critical article by a Ugandan academic and columnist based in the US as the paper faced threats from the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, over its independent but critical coverage.
Dr Moses Khisa, an associate professor at North Carolina State University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences, wrote on his Facebook page about the article without giving reasons why it was spiked.
“Predictably but regrettably, the ‘Majority Report’ will not run this weekend,” he wrote, referring to his column by its name.
“It’s not hard to tell why. I filed on time, as I’ve diligently done every week for eight straight years. Out of respect for my colleagues, my editors at Daily Monitor, I will not say more.”
Days before the article was spiked, Dr Khisa had suggested that the Monitor, which President Museveni has on many occasions called an “enemy paper”, might not publish it.
“In my Daily Monitor for this weekend, I ask ‘Where is the conscience of the nation’ (assuming the ‘enemy paper’ isn’t shutdown or my column isn’t suspended)?” he wrote.
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Gen Kainerugaba has previously written on social media that the Daily Monitor rarely writes positively about him. He issued the threats on X after operatives believed to be attached to the Special Forces Command, an elite unit of the UPDF, abducted former Kampala mayor Erias Lukwago from his home on June 15.
Mr Lukwago is one of the senior lawyers representing Dr Kizza Besigye and his aide, Obeid Lutale, who are currently on remand in Luzira Prison over treason charges. The state has since charged him with misprision of treason, or the crime of knowing that someone has committed or is planning to commit treason and deliberately failing to report it to the authorities.
Two Daily Monitor editors contacted by OJ-UGANDA by telephone declined to discuss the reasons for spiking the article, which Dr Khisa has since posted on Facebook.
OJ-UGANDA contacted Dr Khisa for a comment, but he sent his response after this story had been published.
MOSES KHISA’S FULL RESPONSE
- This wasn’t the first time, but I don’t hold it against our colleagues in the newsroom. For 8 years, I have mostly written uncensored. We must appreciate the very difficult environment in which they’re operating. When you have a crown prince openly threatening to shut down a media house, the chilling impact it sends to editors and managers is enormous. Worse, Museveni has repeatedly referred to Daily Monitor as the “enemy newspaper”.
- In my case, I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised that my column continued to run despite the direct and unequivocal manner I criticize the regime and Museveni himself. The difference now is that, unlike Museveni, the son cannot live with people openly criticizing him in a newspaper he can easily order its closure!
- It’s not just the media. As you know, several NGOs were summarily shut down and remain in limbo. Even in academia, it’s now hard to find a Makerere professor or lecturer willing to denounce the actions of Muhoozi. The best one can do is speak in vague, general terms. Under Vice Chancellor Nawangwe, Makerere is fully captured, but also individual faculty members have to steer clear of commenting on politics including, very ironically, those in the political science department!
Titled “Where is the conscience of the nation?”, the article said that following Mr Lukwago’s abduction, Gen Kainerugaba posted images of the lawyer in a way that appeared to revel in his ordeal.
“Muhoozi posted utterly appalling images of Lukwago blindfolded, seemingly pleading and another picture of him in a diaper along with different textposts suggesting he was undergoing beatings and had passed urine several times. This was gut-wrenching, to say the least,” Dr Khisa wrote.
He said that given the ubiquitous technology that can be used to fake photos, “there is a chance” that the posted images were not real. But he added that they were “meant to mock, dehumanise and humiliate” Mr Lukwago.
“Even without the images, the series of texts posted on X alone were enough evidence that Uganda’s CDF, as he put it himself, took pleasure in the physical torture, not to say anything of the emotion toll, of Comrade Erias Lukwago,” he wrote.
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS OUR READERS OFTEN ASK
Daily Monitor is no stranger to hostile state action against its journalism. In October 2002, the government shut down the paper for a week after it published a story about an army helicopter it said had been shot down by rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army.
In May 2013, the paper and its sister KFM station were shuttered over a story about a leaked document claiming President Museveni was grooming Gen Kainerugaba to succeed him as president.
The government continues to crack down on journalists and civil society organisations it falsely accuses of working for foreign interests.
Robert Ssempala, the executive director of Human Rights Network for Journalists, called Gen Kainerugaba’s threats “bad news” and told OJ-UGANDA that his organisation is among those the state has blacklisted.
Paul Ekochu, the chairman of the Media Council, which arbitrates disputes between the state and news outlets, said the threats were allegations that had not been brought before the council.
“The Media Council’s role is to arbitrate, and there’s nothing before the Council to arbitrate,” he said in a phone interview.
DISCLOSURE: The author of this story writes a column for the Weekend Monitor as an independent contractor.
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