Central Broadcasting Service (CBS), Suubi, Sapientia, and Akaboozi ku Bbiri – were accused of inciting violence, promoting sectarianism, campaigning against the government, and abusing the President. CBS, partly owned by the Buganda Kingdom and about whose broadcasts the President had complained for years, is still off the air, five months on. The other three were allowed back on air after several weeks, Radio Sapientia on condition that it would stick to religious programming only. The government says to re-open, CBS must apologise for inciting violence and civil unrest, get its employees who have sued the government seeking compensation for loss of employment to withdraw the court case, relocate the radio studios from the seat of the kingdom government at Bulange-Mengo, drop programmes that incite violence and disorder, and adhere to broadcasting standards. “I will order the reopening of CBS when Mengo implements the conditions given by the government,” President Museveni told a rally at the end of January 2010.3 During the riots, several journalists were barred from broadcasting with some of them not having returned months after the incident. At the same time that the radio stations were shut down, the government banned ebimeeza, the out-of-studio open-air weekend discussions broadcast live on various FM stations. The ebimeeza, started in the run-up to the 2001 elections, provided citizens the chance to debate public issues openly. The government’s first attempt to ban ebimeeza, arguing that radio licences allowed indoor and not outdoor broadcasting, was in December 2002. At that time, senior Cabinet ministers publicly opposed the idea, some 6,000 people signed a petition against the ban, and the Uganda Law Society said there was no legal or constitutional basis for the proposed ban. The closure of radio stations, arrest, charging and suspension of journalists, banning of ebimeeza, and the stealth registration of journalists by RDCs have had a chilling effect in journalistic circles and the general public at large. On radio talk shows, very few journalists are hosting people perceived to be critical of the government. There is self-censorship. Sometimes, even when journalists are willing to take the risk and host critical voices, the owners of the radio stations will stop them for fear of antagonising the government which is one of the biggest advertisers on these media channels. Some owners reportedly listen in with a view to swiftly stopping a show from going forward once the guest gets overly critical of the government. Apart from losing business from government advertising, the stations fear closure. This fear is present in all sections of society and, as one panellist put it, “since 2007, the threshold of fear is up.” It might be seen as paranoid but people 3 Three days after the panel meeting, on Wednesday, 17 February, the government sued the CBS for allegedly breaching the Electronic Media Act 2000. It wants the courts to order CBS to pay damages for allegedly mobilising and inciting the public into violence and rebelling against lawful authority. 16 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER UGANDA 2010