Broadcasters decry UBC clampdown

By Steven Candia                                        

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is to hold an emergency meeting over the massive clampdown on radio and television stations in the ongoing probe into alleged mismanagement of Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) property.

Captain Francis Babu, the NAB chairman said the meeting has been convened to look into the matter, given the concern the massive disconnections have raised.

"We are going to look into the problems, challenges and solutions to these problems but you just do not disconnect people like that," Babu said and referred to switching off of the media houses as unfortunate.

 The closed-door meeting that will bring together most of the owners of radio and TV stations will be held at the Kampala Serena Hotel in the afternoon. "Thereafter we will write to UBC, the Broadcasting Council and the ministry," he said. 

But Babu on Tuesday also accused both UBC and the police of being high-handed, and particularly UBC of using underhand methods to smother competition, especially from other radio and TV stations.

"We are satisfied with the methods employed by UBC and the police. The methods were underhanded and an abuse of the contractual relationship between those stations and UBC," he said.

‘UBC unfair’

It was not fair for UBC, which, he said, has been charging exorbitant rates for renting space on its masts, to arbitrarily switch off other radio stations for defaulting in payment.

"They should have given them (defaulting radio and TV stations) notice to come and explain why they are not paying but you just do not disconnect them like that,” Babu said, adding that it was wrong for UBC and police to disconnect the radios without going through the Broadcasting Council.

"When the other party does not comply, you go through the Broadcasting Council and it is the council to revoke the license," he said. He also said it was unthinkable how radio stations of high repute such as BBC, Radio France International (RFI) and Citizen TV could allegedly use UBC property illegally.

Babu said it was also unfair for UBC, a competitor, to levy a fee for the rent of space on its masts to other stations. "Such money should be collected by a department in the ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) which would also set a reasonable fee, but not UBC," he remarked.

"These are radio stations of high repute. Well, if they defaulted on payment, that would be another matter but you just do not disconnect them like that.”

But the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) argued that it would not intervene in the matter.

 "There was a contractual relationship subsisting between the parties and that was a private arrangement in which it can not come in," Fred Otunu, the UCC spokesperson said on Tuesday.

UBC and the police at the weekend switched off more than ten radio and TV stations in the ongoing probe, citing among others illegal connection to UBC power lines and default in paying bills for rent of space on several UBC masts.