{UAH} FOCUS ON MUSEVENI’S WAR ON THE MEDIA

Written by CHANGE OF GUARDS

Like all autocratic leaders, Uganda's military dictator has always harboured a grand scheme of taking hostage of all public and private institutions.  In this regard, control of citizens' access to information is the latest casualty.  He had always treated the media as "an enemy" and his efforts to suppress it have always taken a low intensity.  He has enacted draconian laws to curtail freedom of expression and access to information.  He has persecuted individual journalists and coerced others to compromise their professionalism.  Repeated raids on media houses by security forces was cured by compromising proprietorship of the same.  However, he has redirected war against individual Journalists and this seems to be reaching its peak. Journalists have been subjected to immense harrassment and physical harm while their equipment has been destroyed by his security personnel.

To get a better understanding of why Museveni is targeting a specific field of journalism, you need to have a closer examination of two aspects:

1.  COMMUNIST MILITARY DICTATORSHIP AND THE MEDIA

Communism as an economic system distinguishes individual freedoms from society's best interests.  The idea of an individual's freedom of expression is incompatible with a communist ideology unless it's for the betterment of society.  It believes that freedom of information should only be granted when a communist society as a whole is likely to benefit.  Communist leaders strongly advocate for freedom of speech and expression while still struggling to get into power but once they are there, they feel that access to opposition speech and information is no longer beneficial to the communist state.  In communist China, Article 35 of its Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech, public assembly, association, processions and demonstrations.  However, all traditional media is tightly controlled by the state.  It follows that all published information must be from official sources and must he vetted through the state.  Its vast centralised and most sophisticated censorship program of the internet targets political and opinion sites for Taiwan and Tibet.  Among its draconian laws is the requirement that all internet service providers and cafes record and store information about all users – identify and activities.  To this end, it has even gone ahead to create its own version of the internet.

Interestingly, these communist/socialist autocrats too need the internet as a tool for shaping public opinion.  They interprete social media as a tool of the state which they  employ with sophisticated technological tools – industrial development, mass surveillance and communication.  They very well know the advantages of social media and use them to cement their hold on power by erecting alternative realities, spying on the citizens and mobilizing their supporters.  They employ tens of thousands of paid social media soldiers to bolster their regime's legitimacy and discourage any kind of collective Civic organization and action as was the case with the Arab Spring.   It is in the same regard that the desperate Museveni personally took to social media, deployed hundreds of social media activists dubbed NRM SOMA, engaged Huawei to spy on citizens, imposed heavy OTT tax  before he even closed down social media.  This is despite the fact that Article 41 of his Constitution guaratees freedom of expression and access to information.  He has even enacted the Access to Information Act of 2005 that guarantees access to Information in possession of the state.

2.  INTELLIGENCE AND THE PRESS

Intelligence is information secretly collected, processed and narrowed down to be used by policy makers.  It helps in government policy formulation and implementation to further its national security interests and to deal with threats – actual and potential adversaries.  The manufucture of information takes form of an Intelligence Cycle – collection, processing, analysing and dissemination.  The collection process involves an intergral part of Open Sources Intelligence (OSINT) which includes the media, Technical Intelligence (TECHINT – interception of communication),  image Intelligence (IMINT) – video and photography,  Human collection (HUMINT) by agents.  With globalisation, journalism is becoming outdated and people are now now the source of intelligence as journalists are on social media instead of being passive witnesses as had been the case in the past.

Therefore, there is little difference between information and Intelligence.  Both seek to uncover what is hidden.  The duty of the media is to inform the public while the duty of the government is to conceal certain information, onstensibly, to protect the public.  All intelligence is information but not all information is intelligence.  The media supplements the intelligence community in the following roles:

a.  Acting as a checking force – bringing important issues up for public debate thus triggering policy change.

b.  Substitute watchdog – bursting scandals

c.  Legitimising institution – helps build public trust in formal intelligence institutions.

In democratic governance, the intelligence community treats the media as a partner.  Where the media unearths some matter that is likely to injure national security and public safety in general, intelligence agencies use diplomacy in convincing the media to either drop or delay the story.  On the contrary, in communist/socialist autocracy, the media is gagged with the intention of making it tow the line.

Therefore, for Museveni, after successfully compromising the proprietors of the media houses and their editorial teams, he is now at war with the foot Journalists who collect information from the field.  His regime's intelligence agencies are the major beneficiaries of the work of these journalists. He personally reads almost all the print media, watches much of the TV programs and actively engages on social media.  His intelligence agencies and other government institutions have a huge budget for the print media and well facilitated swarms of social media activists.  He fully appreciates the role of the media but his only problem is that the low cadre journalists are not towing his political line.  He views them as being hostile to his autocracy and wishes to coerce them into submission.  As his Police Chief clearly put it;

"It is not that we are targeting you the media, no, we are trying to protect your lives, we are telling you it is danger there, for you, you are insisting you must go where there is danger. Yes, we shall beat you for your own sake. To help you understand to not go there."

There is no doubt, he will achieve that.  In his regard, it won't be surprising if his targets are subjected to political indoctrination sessions and that will mark the end of independent journalism in the country.  In his hand scheme to have full control of information, this is the same fate that awaits other institutions like Auditor General's Office, the National Bureau of Statistics and the music/performing arts industry.

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Rehema
Patriot in Kampala,East Africa:Assalamu Alaikum

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