New Vision commended for fair reporting during elections

Media experts have applauded the New Vision newspaper for reporting fairly during the recently concluded 2016 elections.

This was during the launch of the; "ACME Monitoring Media Coverage of the 2016 Elections" final report at Hotel Africana, in Kampala on Wednesday.

The project, which started in July 2015, analysed coverage of Presidential and Parliamentary campaigns from September 2015 to March 2016.

The study was funded by Democratic Governance Facility (DGF) and Citizens' Election Observers Network Uganda (CENU).

The lead researcher of the study, Dr George Lugalambi stressed that despite of the position of the New Vision as partly a state newspaper, they tried to balance the coverage of all the Presidential Candidates during campaigns.

"The way the media dealt with the incumbency is another issue. When you look at the New Vision, regardless of its relationship with state, it did a great job to balance its coverage than UBC and other private media institutions," he added.

Lugalambi stressed that New Vision was far more sophisticated in the way they covered elections despite the pressure they were facing.

However, he raised concern over irresponsible reporting approach by all the media during campaigns, saying majority was shallow and never guided voters on what choices to make.

"The reporting was strictly conventional. The reporters never bothered to interrogate the claims and promises made by several candidates. Most stories lacked background, analysis and context," he added.

Gerald Walulya, a lecturer at Makerere University, noted that despite the bias in reporting, The New Vision tried its best to report fairly on all candidates.

"I strongly agree with Dr. Lugalambi that New Vision did a fairer job than some other media institutions including Uganda Broadcasting Cooperation (UBC). The New Vision was neutral and always tried to balance other candidates," Walulya added.

He also noted the other candidates would get more space in its sister local papers like Orumuri, Rupiny and Etop.

The report indicates that the New Vision had more voter education while Observer concentrated on Transparency and Accountability on Election Day.

Several media experts raised concern over the reporting approach by the media during campaigns, stressing the media influences the choices of voters.

"Even the sourcing was poor because majority stories were single sourced," Dr. Peter Mwesige, the ACME executive director noted.

The study cited Etop, a sister local paper to the New Vision, The Independent Magazine and The Observer, which stood out for having a fair mix of reporting approaches; conventional, interpretative, investigative and enterprise.

Mwesige noted that although the media followed and produced an impressive number of stories, they fell short of several measures of quality which might have led the voters.

The research shows that newspapers tried with 38% of their stories interrogating candidate claims and only 22% for television.

Enterprise and investigation reporting was at 20% in newspaper coverage, 13% of radio and 10% for television.

The findings also showed that media relied more on male sources at 80% and concentrated more on politics than issues ordinary Ugandans cited as important problems facing the country like health, corruption and agriculture.

On newspaper coverage of the three main Presidential candidates, President Yoweri Museveni stories commanded 39% of the space, Amama Mbabazi (29%) and Col. Dr. Kizza Besigye at 21%, while television spent 45% dedicated to Museveni compared to Besigye at 22% and Mbabazi 19%.

Museveni also led in Radio coverage with 41% of time dedicated to his campaign news, Mbabazi 24% and Besigye 23%.

The findings also show that the judicial officers were most quoted in post-election reporting due to election petition.

Besigye was also the most covered on television in the post-election, which researchers attribute to his detention and Mbabazi because of the petition.

Rose Kemigisha, a worker with Human Rights, said what matters is the content of stories not the bulk. "We want stories that empower the voter with facts and guide them to make right choices. There is need to sit with stakeholders and discuss how to improve the industry," she added.

They sampled nine newspapers, five television channels, 33 radio stations and followed twitter profiles of the three main candidates.