Ugandan army chief orders shutdown of Nation Media Group

Uganda's military chief ordered the closure of a major independent media group on Sunday, deploying soldiers to its offices and taking its television and radio stations off the air. General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of President Yoweri Museveni, declared he does not believe in a free press and asserted his authority to shutter any media outlet.

Soldiers were deployed outside the Kampala offices of the Daily Monitor newspaper in the early hours of Sunday, preventing staff from entering or leaving. The closure targeted the Nation Media Group (NMG), affecting its outlets including NTV Uganda, Spark TV, Dembe FM, KFM, and the Daily Monitor newspaper itself. Broadcasts displayed a "Video unavailable" message as the stations went off the air.

Kainerugaba announced the action in a series of posts on the social media platform X. "I have the power in Uganda to shut down ANY media house I want to," he wrote, adding that this power was given to him by his father in 2017. He stated the outlets "will not reopen without my permission." In his posts, Kainerugaba rejected the concept of press freedom for Uganda, writing, "The press should be guided by cadres of the revolution," and declared,...