NAIROBI, June 30 (Reuters) – A leading East African media group whose outlets in Uganda were shut down at the weekend by soldiers is in talks with the military to reopen, with staff still unable to access offices, the organisation’s managing director in the country told Reuters.
The closure of six newspapers and radio and TV stations owned by Kenya-headquartered Nation Media Group (NMG) has triggered protests from human rights group Amnesty International and prompted a senior U.S. lawmaker to urge Washington to review its security relationship with Uganda.
Uganda’s military chief Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is also President Yoweri Museveni’s son, ordered the shutdown of the Daily Monitor and NTV Uganda on Sunday, saying they would not reopen without his permission. He did not give specific reasons for their closure.
Justine Kasule Lumumba, the minister for ICT and National Guidance, said the events that led to the disruption of NMG’s operations arose from a security-led inquiry that Museveni had ordered.
“The inquiry involves the Uganda People’s Defence Forces, the Criminal Investigations Directorate of the … police, other security agencies and experts,” she said in a statement.
NMG’s closure is the latest restriction on freedoms ordered by Kainerugaba, who has been touted as a possible successor to his ageing father. He is well known for his incendiary social media posts and death threats against critics, including Uganda’s main opposition leader Bobi Wine.
“Negotiations are ongoing at different levels for reopening,” Susan Nsibirwa, managing director for NMG in Uganda, said, adding that military personnel had surrounded the offices.
Kainerugaba had said on X late on Sunday that discussions were underway about reopening the outlets. Uganda’s military spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Amnesty said at least six outlets were shut down by the military, including the Daily Monitor, NTV, Dembe FM, Spark TV, KFM and The East African.
“The president’s son continues his unchecked and unjust campaign of harassment and intimidation of independent media and civil society,” Amnesty’s East and Southern Africa director, Tigere Chagutah, said in a statement on Monday.
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Jim Risch said on X that the United States should review its security relationship with Uganda, adding Kainerugaba’s attacks on free speech, including shuttering major media houses, made him and the Ugandan military “unfit partners”.
(Reporting by Nairobi Newsroom; Editing by David Lewis, Ammu Kannampilly and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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