SECTOR 4 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: 3.6 (2007: n/a) 4.5 Journalists and editors do not practice selfcensorship. Analysis: Some self-censorship is part of journalistic life. The question is over degree and context. Sometimes story conceptualisation is the beginning of self-censorship, then how the story is played. This goes beyond declining to run a story that is watertight out of some fear or other. But what may appear to be self-censorship could simply also be the result of a difference in approach to news judgement. There are many cases where there is no doubt what is going on. A panellist recounted how, when he was a radio station manager and editor, the owner handed down a guiding principle: “We are not antigovernment, we are not anti-business.” That was the owner’s pithy way of telling his manager/editor not to run stories likely to antagonise the government “ You are panel-beaten and key advertisers: “You are panel-beaten into into subservience” . subservience”. All stories relating in any way to the station’s top four advertisers had to go through the owner. Otherwise, the editor simply had to drop them, especially if they contained anything likely to be disagreeable to the boss or the advertisers. The space for editorial independent judgements will decrease and self-censorship increase as the date for elections in 2011 approaches. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER UGANDA 2010 63