existence of 276 radio stations in the country, a number of them are owned by ruling party politicians who discourage broadcasting of news that is deemed critical of the government. The national broadcaster, Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) is still state owned, and its board is appointed by the Minister of Information and National Guidance. This has lessened the independence and transparency of UBC and consequently, there is no accountability to the public. Also problematic is the silence of the UBC Act on issues of the political, financial and commercial interests of Board members. Prior to the suspension of the board in May 2011, board members included government representatives compromising the independence and transparency necessary for UBC to survive as a public broadcaster. Community broadcasters in Uganda continue to operate in a vague policy and legal environment, thus exposing them to various forms of interference by the state. Although the existing Broadcasting Council’s National Broadcasting Policy, drafted in 2004, recognises the role of community broadcasting, the policy is yet to be implemented. So far, the only positive action that has taken place is the lowering of fees for non-profit making broadcasters, but even this is not supported by any regulations. One of the key developments in the Ugandan media landscape has been the development of a self-regulatory body, the Independent Media Council of Uganda (IMCU), which was established in 2008. This body has however remained dormant. Government, which established a statutory media council through the Press and Journalist Act of 1995, has also resisted the IMCU. The IMCU might not be operational, but its voluntary code of conduct remains in use. Media organisations such as New Vision and The Daily Monitor, for instance, also have their own in-house codes of conduct. Activism around media reform has declined significantly. There have been few campaigns around media reform and freedom of expression. Media organisations and trade unions remain fragmented and the self-regulatory body mentioned above is in shambles. There is also a worsening trend of corruption among journalists. Given the different working conditions of journalists across the media, there has been an inevitable increase in corruption. More affluent and well established media such as The Daily Monitor and New Vision provide better working conditions and therefore may not be greatly affected by this growing trend. However, journalists from less established media houses tend to charge civil society organisations and other organisations in order to have their issues covered. The level of accuracy of reportage has also deteriorated, leading to decreasing levels of investigative journalism across many newsrooms. This in many ways 8 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER UGANDA 2012