UCC reopens Radio Hoima after two-day closure

May 31, 2017

The broadcaster was put off air over the content of some of its programmes.

PIC: UCC executive director Godfrey Mutabazi. (Credit: Ronnie Kijjambu)

MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS


HOIMA - The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has reopened Radio Hoima after a two-day closure.

The broadcaster, on frequency 88.6FM, was put off air on Saturday afternoon for persistently hosting Bunyoro Kitara Reparations Agency (BUKITAREPA) members who are sectarian.

UCC executive director Godfrey Mutabazi, in a letter dated May 25, said the commission had received numerous complaints from people expressing concern about the content of some of the programmes aired over the radio.

He said this was a breach of UCC regulations.

The radio station located on Wright road in Hoima town was reopened late Monday at 11:30pm.

A source said the two transmitters at the radio station mast point at Bakumira hill in Hoima town which UCC officials had confiscated were reinstalled so that the radio could be back on air.

Fred Otunu, the UCC Corporate Affairs director, told New Vision on phone on Tuesday that the decision to reopen the radio followed wider investigations into the matter.

"We evaluated the recordings that they said the station aired and established the recording was done outside the station at a public gathering," he said.

Otunu said the recording was then used as an illustration to warn the public against such utterance and was not part of the broadcast content.

He said the station was enjoined to adhere to broadcast license conditions. Asked whether there were any conditionality issued before reopening, he said none.

The station manager, Jorokamu alias JB Lawyer, said the closure has negatively impacted on the station earnings as well as its image.

He said that UCC, in their communication, alluded to failure to meet broadcasting standards which demoralises potential clients and listeners.

"We are writing to our clients to explain to them, given our good image as being the pioneer radio [in the area] having started in 1997. We are yet to compute the costs but we estimated losses in millions of shillings."

Meanwhile, this has drawn mixed reactions from the media practitioners in the area.

John Kibego, a journalist and a station manager for Biiso FM in Buliisa district, said: " I am not yet sure of the procedure of closing the radio but you just don't come and close. We should have respect for the audience. They don't do like that unless we are in a state of chaos."

Hamuza Kitakule, a radio journalist, said the closure should act as a wakeup call to all media practitioners to up their game.

He noted breaches on minimum standards in many media houses, adding that UCC should take keen interest in the quality of broadcasting elsewhere where some media houses have failed.

John Bosco Tugume, a talk show host on Spice FM who was elated now that his fellow journalists are back to work, said the station would have been given a fair hearing to explain itself before closure.

A journalist who asked not to be named described the UCC Act as dictatorial and a great abuse of media freedom.

 

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