SECTOR 2

Bukedde, a sister paper of The New Vision. In addition, there are weekly papers: The
East African, The Weekly Message, The East African Business Week, The Sunrise, Etop,
Orumuri, Rupiny, The Independent, and two others affiliated with the Buganda
Kingdom – Ggwanga (meaning ‘nation’), and Eddoboozi (meaning ‘the voice’). The
Weekly Observer went biweekly to become, simply, The Observer. There are two
other occasional papers: The Movement Times and The Onion.
A copy of a daily costs Shs1,200 - in a country where 31 per
cent of the people live on less than a dollar (Shs2,100) a day. “To
buy a paper is a sacrifice”. People in the rural areas are not really
interested in print media because their main issues of coverage,
which revolve around happenings in the capital Kampala, are not
seen as affecting them. They prefer their (local) FM station.

“To buy a
paper is a
sacrifice”.

Internet is increasingly more available and prices are coming
down. For Shs1,000 one gets 30 minutes in an Internet café compared to 10
minutes in 2007. And more people are using the Internet. As of June 2009,
according to the Communications Commission review, there were 12 Internet
and data service providers in Uganda. There were 27,590 Internet subscriptions,
with the estimated number of users standing at 2.8 million (9 per cent of the
population) in 2009 compared to 15,500 subscriptions and an estimated 1 million
users in 2007. There is shared usage at work places, education institutions, and
public cafes.
Accessibility of information is, however, also dependent upon access to electricity
with only 10 per cent of Ugandans being connected to the national electricity
grid. There are disparities based on wealth as well – the richer (and there are not
so many) enjoy a much wider range of sources of information.

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: 			

2.3

(2007: 2.6)

AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER UGANDA 2010

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