SECTOR 4 The media practice high levels of professional standards. 4.1 The media follow voluntary codes of professional standards, which are enforced by self-regulatory bodies that deal with complaints from the public. A self-regulatory body, the Independent Media Council of Uganda (IMCU), was established in 2008, but is currently dormant. Sensitisation is needed to ensure buy-in from the media, the public and the government. “There is a problem with the media houses themselves. They have to voluntarily accept to be part of this (the media council). It cannot be imposed. Some media houses don’t want to join.” Government, which established a Statutory Media Council through the Press and Journalist Act of 1995, has also resisted the IMCU. Panellists said the country’s Chief Justice was supposed to preside over the launch of the IMCU, but pulled out when he became aware of the government’s reticence. Subsequent Ministers of Information have opposed the IMCU. “They don’t see how a body that is voluntary can impose discipline. For the time being, the self-regulatory media council should focus on sensitisation to bring everyone on board before it can take cases. To date it hasn’t taken a single case.” The IMCU was supported as a project of Panos East Africa, panellists said. Panos has since pulled out. “For more than six months, the office has been closed because of lack of funding.” This happened just as the organisation was about to about to start on a sensitisation campaign. UNESCO (the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation) has now agreed to support an education project around self-regulation through Makerere University. The IMCU might not be operational, but its voluntary code of conduct remains in use. New Vision, for example, has it displayed in the newsroom. Both New Vision and The Daily Monitor also have their own, in-house codes of conduct. “The Daily Monitor has…a written code of conduct that is given to every journalist as soon as you are employed by the newspaper. This includes the paper’s editorial policy. It is mandatory.” New Vision’s Managing Editor “closely monitors how we adhere to ethical issues and guides journalists”. The paper is the process of reviewing its code of conduct. “My assessment is that some media houses attempt to follow voluntary codes. They are not really enforced by self-regulatory bodies, and they don’t deal with complaints from the public.” 58 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER UGANDA 2012