'I Do Not Believe in a Free Press': Uganda's Military Siege on Independent Media

At approximately 1:07 in the morning on Sunday, June 28, 2026, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba Chief of Defence Forces of Uganda, first son of President Yoweri Museveni, and increasingly the face of Uganda's authoritarian future posted a declaration on X that no military officer in a nominally democratic state has ever posted so brazenly: "NTV and Monitor are being shut down from today!" Minutes later came another post: "Both NTV and Monitor will not re-open without my permission." And then, the statement that lay bares everything: "In Uganda, I DO NOT believe in a free press! The press should be guided by cadres of the revolution."

By 5:00 in the morning, those words had become reality. NTV Uganda and Spark TV were forced off air after an overnight security crackdown at Nation Media Group (NMG) Uganda's premises in Namuwongo and at the Kampala Serena Hotel. NTV Uganda and Spark TV viewers were met with blank screens displaying the message "video unavailable," while uncertainty surrounded the operations of NMG's other platforms, including the Daily Monitor. Dembe FM and KFM also went silent. Armed soldiers took up positions outside the media house's headquarters. Staffs were told no one was allowed to enter or leave.

What unfolded in the Ugandan capital in the early hours of June 28 was not a regulatory enforcement action, not a court-ordered injunction, not even a bureaucratic misuse of a vaguely worded law. It was something rawer and more chilling: a military commander deploying state armed forces to silence the press because he personally found its coverage objectionable and announcing it live on social media as he did so.

The Target: Uganda's Most Influential Independent Media House

Nation Media Group is East Africa's largest independent media company. In Uganda, NMG owns the 20-year-old NTV Uganda, the Daily Monitor, The East African, Spark TV, 93.3 KFM, 90.4 Dembe FM, Ennyanda newspaper, and the Nation Courier, among other platforms. The company employs more than 500 people in Uganda alone.

The Daily Monitor, in particular, holds a special place in Uganda's journalistic history. Celebrating its 30th anniversary of independent reporting at the very moment soldiers surrounded its Namuwongo premises, the paper has been a consistent voice of accountability in a country where such voices are perpetually at risk. Its journalists have investigated corruption at the Ministry of ICT, exposed ghost workers siphoning public funds, and reported critically on governance failures that official media have ignored.

It is precisely that accountability journalism that made NMG the target. NTV Uganda had recently aired several news features and documentaries examining the tenure of General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, revisiting controversial episodes from his military career, his public statements on social media, and long-running debates surrounding governance, human rights, and Uganda's political future.

General Muhoozi accused Nation Media Group of what he called a "lifetime of insults" against him. He ordered police to arrest NMG Managing Director Susan Nsibirwa "on sight," though he retracted that specific order shortly after, saying government spokesman Alan Kasujja had intervened and "would deal with her."

A Pattern of Escalating Hostility
Sunday's shutdown did not emerge from nowhere. It was the violent culmination of a systematic campaign of intimidation that has been building for years and accelerating dramatically since Uganda's disputed January 15, 2026 general election, in which President Museveni was declared the winner of a seventh consecutive term.

In 2025, around 20 journalists were assaulted during by-elections in Kawempe, particularly by the army and the anti-terrorist Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force (JATT). During the 2026 presidential election, at least five more journalists were targeted. Security personnel assaulted and intimidated NBS TV photojournalist Francis Isano, camera operator Hassan Wasswa, and reporter Hakim Wampamba during the 2025 by-elections. NMG camera operator Stephen Kibwiika was beaten with batons while wearing a clearly marked "Press" vest, sustaining ankle injuries. NMG reporter Steven Mbidde was restrained and dragged to the ground while live reporting. On one occasion, Kibwiika was struck on the head with a baton and kicked in the groin while covering allegations of ballot stuffing, requiring three days of hospitalization.

In October 2025, security personnel prevented journalists from NTV Uganda and Daily Monitor from entering parliament, stating they had instructions to deny them access. Since March 2025, authorities had also blocked the group's reporters from covering events involving President Museveni. In July 2025, well-known investigative journalist Canary Mugume of NBS Television was violently attacked in Kampala by unknown assailants who pulled him from his vehicle late at night, punched his face and eyes, and stole his mobile phone. In October 2025, the offices of The Observer, an independent newspaper, were ransacked and twelve computers stolen.

The Legal Architecture of Repression
General Muhoozi's deployment of soldiers against journalists is the most visible face of Uganda's media repression. But behind it lies a carefully constructed legal architecture designed to give the state multiple instruments of control. A UN Human Rights Office report found that Ugandan authorities relied on laws adopted or amended since the 2021 elections to consolidate control, reinforce impunity, and restrict freedom of expression.

These measures included provisions under recent amendments to legislation governing digital communication, civil society regulation, and military authority, which officials used to detain opposition figures and activists, raid opposition party premises, seize property, suspend radio stations, and arrest bloggers.

Most alarming is a proposed law that would take press repression to an entirely new level. Uganda's Protection of Sovereignty Bill, introduced in parliament in April 2026, contains sweeping provisions that could be used to imprison journalists critically reporting on economics, foreign policy, or elections for up to 20 years, limit foreign media funding to approximately $100,000, and subject newsrooms to intrusive state oversight. T

he Committee to Protect Journalists warned: "Uganda's Protection of Sovereignty Bill risks unleashing a dangerous legal weapon that authorities can easily turn against the press, under the guise of regulation and national security. If this bill is not stopped, journalists reporting in a manner that does not please President Museveni's administration could find themselves smeared with accusations of 'economic sabotage' and jailed as 'agents of foreigners.'"

The 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act has also created a restrictive and chilling environment for journalists. The Act, which criminalizes the "promotion of homosexuality" through publishing, broadcasting, distribution, and online expression and imposes penalties of suspension or cancellation of licences, continued to create a restrictive and intimidating environment for journalists, editors, podcasters, human rights reporters, and community media outlets covering LGBTQI+ lives, public health, violence, forced evictions, court cases, or advocacy.

The Facebook Blockade and Internet Shutdown

Uganda's war on the press has a digital dimension that predates even the current wave of physical repression. Facebook has been blocked in Uganda since the 2021 election a closure that has never been reversed. The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights expressed deep concern over statements by the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) that the internet would be shut down, and noted with concern reported threats against individuals using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to access Facebook.

The government imposed a nationwide internet shutdown days before the January 2026 vote. Ahead of the elections, the National Bureau for Non-Governmental Organizations suspended at least seven human rights organizations, including Chapter Four Uganda, the Human Rights Network for Journalists and the African Centre for Media Excellence. The institutions most capable of documenting and challenging press repression were themselves repressed simultaneously.

The Succession Question and What It Means for the Press

Behind every act of media repression in Uganda today stands the shadow of dynastic succession. President Museveni, now 81 years old, has ruled Uganda since 1986 four decades of unbroken power. General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, 52, has made no secret of his desire to succeed his father. His political network, the Patriotic League of Uganda, counts the parliamentary speaker and several government ministers among its members and supporters. Kainerugaba claimed his authority to shut down any media outlet was personally granted to him by Museveni in 2017.

Kainerugaba declared on X: "The closure of NTV and Monitor is just the beginning. We are going to arrest many more." From now on, he stated, all media in Uganda would "follow the rules." In a subsequent post he added: "Mzee has approved my plan to close both NTV and Monitor. We are moving immediately! From now on ALL bad stories about Uganda have to be cleared by my office!"

What General Muhoozi is constructing, in effect, is a template for the media environment he intends to inherit. A press that celebrates the revolution, clears all coverage through the military's office, and knows that editors can be arrested on sight and newsrooms besieged without any legal procedure, judicial order, or public accountability. What distinguishes Uganda's situation is the brazenness of the public declaration. Rather than issuing closure orders through regulatory bodies or courts, Kainerugaba broadcast his authority directly on social media, framing it as a personal and hereditary right. That combination of military force and social media bravado marks a notable shift in how authoritarian media suppression is being carried out and communicated.

The International Response and What Must Happen

The condemnations have come swiftly. The Africa programme of the Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the shutdown, calling the "use of state security forces to carry out publicly announced threats against independent media a deeply troubling escalation." Kenyan-based rights group Vocal Africa called the raid a "dangerous silencing of the press" that reflects a broader attack on civic space in the east African region, demanding the immediate withdrawal of military forces from NMG's Uganda offices and the unconditional restoration of all disrupted broadcast frequencies.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) said in a joint statement following the January elections that they were conducted "in an environment incompatible with free and fair democratic competition."

Uganda currently ranks 143rd out of 180 countries on the RSF World Press Freedom Index a classification the watchdog reserves for countries where journalists face intimidation and violence on a near-daily basis.

Condemnation is necessary but insufficient. The African Union, which was quick to endorse Museveni's seventh election victory without meaningful scrutiny of the conditions in which it was conducted, must now reckon with the spectacle of a military general publicly boasting that he does not believe in press freedom and deploying armed soldiers to prove it. The East African Community, ECOWAS, and international partners with bilateral relationships with Uganda must make clear through action, not statements that militarized press repression has consequences.

Daily Monitor journalists, as soldiers surrounded their building and their 30-year anniversary of independent journalism was marked by a military siege, posted a message that deserves to be the last word on what is ultimately at stake. "We will not be silenced," one journalist said. "We serve the people, not politicians."

That commitment, sustained against four decades of pressure, arrests, beatings, equipment theft, accreditation revocations, and now the deployment of an army, is what journalism looks like when it refuses to surrender. Uganda's people deserve no less.

Mustapha Bature Sallama.
Medical/ Science Communicator,
Private Investigator, Criminal investigation and Intelligence Analysis.

International Conflict Management and Peace Building.USIP

mustysallama@gmail.com
+233-555-275-880
References
Al Jazeera (June 28, 2026). Uganda's Military Chief Orders Shutdown of Two Media Outlets. aljazeera.com

Daily Monitor / Nation Africa (June 28, 2026). NTV Uganda and Spark TV Forced Off Air as Daily Monitor Shutdown on Gen Muhoozi Order. monitor.co.ug

Daily Nation (June 28, 2026). "I Don't Believe in a Free Press!" Gen Muhoozi Shuts Down NTV Uganda, Spark TV and Daily Monitor. nation.africa

IBTimes UK (June 28, 2026). Uganda's Military Chief Says He Can Close 'ANY Media House' Then Sends Soldiers to Shut Down NTV and Daily Monitor. ibtimes.co.uk

The Africa Report (June 28, 2026). Muhoozi Silences Independent Ugandan Press in Widening Civic Crackdown. theafricareport.com

TV47 Digital (June 29, 2026). Muhoozi's Orders to Shutdown NTV and Monitor Exposes How Uganda Has Captured the Press. tv47.digital

Committee to Protect Journalists (March 2025). Troubling Crackdown on Ugandan Journalists Ahead of 2026 Elections. cpj.org

Committee to Protect Journalists (April 24, 2026). Ugandan Journalists Face Up to 20 Years in Jail Under Draconian Foreign Agents Bill. cpj.org

Human Rights Watch / CIVICUS Monitor (April 2026). 2026 Polls Characterised by Systematic Crackdown on Opposition and Civic Space. monitor.civicus.org

African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (January 6, 2026). Press Statement on the Escalating Restrictions on Freedom of Expression, Media Freedom, and Internet Access in Uganda Ahead of the 2026 General Elections. achpr.au.int

Amnesty International (May 4, 2026). East and Southern Africa: Media Freedom Under Attack Amid Prevailing Impunity. amnesty.org

Reporters Without Borders / RSF. Uganda Country Profile. rsf.org

The East African (January 20, 2026). Uganda Under Scrutiny as Activists,

Journalists Face Post-Election Crackdown. theeastafrican.co.ke

International Federation of Journalists / IFJ. Uganda: Nine Journalists Arrested on Trumped-Up Charges. ifj.org

   Comments0