SECTOR 2 The company’s private shareholders also have interests to protect. “The attitude (within the company) is that publishing certain stories will damage government programmes, as well as the country’s reputation, creditworthiness and investor confidence.” Another panellist said: “New Vision may not make stories prominent, but at least they have tried to cover them.” New Vision has to think about its majority shareholder when it comes to the stories it publishes. “But we also have to win the confidence of the audience we are serving otherwise they won’t buy the publication. There are very few cases where the President (State President Yoweri Museveni) will take a personal interest in the paper’s coverage. It doesn’t mean we never receive calls from government. But what has shaped our policy of late is the fact that we are competing with the electronic media. Broadcasters have stories first, and therefore we won’t focus on that story because we would be telling people something they know already. We try to focus on what people don’t know about.” In which case, why do the President and his wife dominate the front pages of New Vision titles, other panellists wanted to know? The State began taking a greater interest in New Vision’s news coverage following the shift towards multi-party politics from 2000 onwards. Now there is a battle to succeed the current President. “This is being played out in the media. This is determining New Vision’s agenda.” As for the President’s wife: “The First Lady loves to be in the media. She demands nothing less. Successive editors at New Vision have grappled with this.” However, the First Family exerts as much pressure on other publications as it does on New Vision. The only difference is that New Vision’s editors are perhaps less equipped to stand up to this pressure. “There are many other people who attempt to behave like the President. Everyone thinks they have the right to use New Vision as their mouthpiece. New Vision doesn’t have adequate safeguards to protect them adequately from interference from powerful people, but it still shines above other African state-owned publications.” 34 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER UGANDA 2012