SECTOR 3 Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 1.0 (2010: 1.1; 2007: n/a) 3.7 The state/public broadcaster is adequately funded in a manner that protects it from arbitrary interference through its budget and from all commercial pressure. According to Article 14 (1) of the UBC Act, the Corporation’s funds shall consist of (a) any grant of a capital nature from the Government; (b) any loan from the Government, organisations or any person; (c) any moneys that may become payable to the Corporation in the discharge of its functions and commercial activities; (d) donations that may be made to the Corporation; (e) television viewing licence fees and advertising revenue. However, President Museveni subsequently halted the collection of TV licenses ahead of the 2006 elections, as the TV license was unpopular on account of the UBC’s pro-government bias14. Since then the bulk of the UBC’s funds have come from advertising and the leasing out its masts to telecom companies and other broadcasters. Government grants account for less than 20 per cent of the UBC’s income. “One of the concerns that the supporters of public broadcasting have is that the UBC competes directly with commercial broadcasters and puts itself under pressure to do commercially-viable programming that may detract from its public service mandate.” But other panellists warned against increasing government funding. “If UBC was fully funded by the government, what type of information would it be able to put out? Yes, the UBC is funded (by government), but even when they are funded, the quality is still lacking. Therefore, wouldn’t it be better if it wasn’t funded and had to compete commercially?” 14 p99 in ‘Uganda’, part of the Public Broadcasting in Africa Series by AfriMAP, OSIEA and OSMP (sourced from: www. afrimap.org/english/.../OSI-Uganda--Public-Broadcasting.pdf) 50 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER UGANDA 2012