SECTOR 4 he will say he’s in a meeting with the President. Every day. What do you do? You have tried. You have gone to his office. There are stories that can’t wait forever.” Journalists try to be accurate and fair. “But a lot of stories hurt people. Take people involved in corruption, for example. Even if you quote them, most likely they won’t feel you are fair or accurate. There have been instances where we have got things wrong. We have a column which we run on page 4 with corrections and apologies.” It has become increasingly difficult for journalists to investigate stories. “There are a lot of legal implications. Often the media houses are not able to get the documentary evidence. Therefore you may not publish a story simply because one critical fact is missing. If you try to go ahead with it you could end up in deep trouble. We have done investigations. Our reporters went through hell to piece together the facts on a story about losses incurred by (cell phone company) MTN. We published the story despite the risk: MTN is a big advertiser.” At New Vision there are staff specifically assigned to investigative stories. “But the company in the past has faced a lot of legal cases and judges are never on our side and tend to be more sympathetic to complainants.” People need to understand that media is also a business, with limited space and time in which to convey information. This makes the way civil society organisations package their information to the media very important. Furthermore, statistics don’t tell the whole story. Government officials are annoyed when the media get comment from alternative sources that “brings out the reality” about government-sanctioned statistics, one panellist noted. Media members of the panel took issue with civil society organisations for providing journalists with incentives. “On my newspaper, if a journalist gets money for writing a story, that person is fired. We don’t compromise. All our reporters are paid and have allowances. You are not supposed to pay a journalist to cover a story.” If a journalist is not convinced about the newsworthiness of a story, “then your job is to convince them”. 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: 62 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER UGANDA 2012 3.3 (2010: 2.7; 2007: 2.4)