Ugandan MEDIA COVERAGE of the2021 Elections JANUARY FINAL REPORT

Ugandan MEDIA COVERAGE of the2021 Elections JANUARY FINAL REPORT

FEBRUARY 2021 Published by African Centre for Media Excellence Plot 130 Kalungu Road (Bunga-Soya), off Ggaba Road P. O. Box 11283 Kampala, Uganda Tel: +256 393 202 351 [email protected] www.acme-ug.org Facebook: ACME.UG Twitter: @ACME_Uganda

Layout & Design by: Murshid Lutalo, [email protected] UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 iii

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V

INTRODUCTION 1

BACKGROUND 2

Media role in elections 2 The media landscape in Uganda 2 The immediate environment in which elections were covered 4 Findings of previous monitoring reports on media coverage of elections 7 Principles identified in guidelines on media coverage of elections 7

RESEARCH QUESTIONS 8

METHODOLOGY 9

Scope of the study 9 Methods of data collection 11 The presidential candidates 12 Volume of stories 13 Type of election (parliamentary vs presidential) 14 Type of articles published in newspapers 17 Type of stories broadcast on TV and radio stations 17 Space allocated to election-related articles in newspapers 18 Time allocated to election-related stories on TV and radio 18

KEY FINDINGS 20

Frequency of stories on presidential candidates 20 Frequency of front-page stories on presidential candidates 23 Frequency of pictures of presidential candidates 24 Space allocated to presidential candidates in newspapers 25 iv JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

Time allocated to presidential candidates on TV and radio 26 Tone of coverage 32 Use of right of reply 34 Event-vs issue-based reporting 36 Origin of election stories 39 Reporting format of election stories 42 Number of sources in election stories 45 Type of sources in election stories 47 Gender of sources in election stories 54 Interrogation of claims by presidential candidates 57 Topics/Issues addressed in election stories 60

EXPLAINING THE COVERAGE 65

On violence and the drama of the campaigns vs issues and party platforms 66 On lack of background and context 66 On the dominance of event-based reporting 67 On lack of investigative election reporting 67 On insufficient interrogation of candidate claims and promises 67 On pressure from the State 68 On the effects of Covid-19 69 On the effects of physical attacks on journalists 69 On the effects of the Media Council’s decision to accredit journalists covering the elections 70 On equitable coverage of the leading presidential candidates 71 On marginalisation of women in media representations 71

CONCLUSION 73

Key takeaways from January 73 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

his research report was written by Brian Ssenabulya (ACME programme associate, media monitoring and research); Elijah Mangeni (programme officer, monitoring and evaluation); Tand Executive Director Peter G. Mwesige (Ph.D). Director of Programmes Bernard Tabaire edited the report.

The coding for the content analysis was conducted by 12 research assistants, to whom we are indebted.

ACME thanks the Democratic Governance Facility (DGF) for funding the research. Monitoring media coverage of elections is part of ACME’s 32-month project entitled, “Enhanced Media Reporting for Civic Engagement and Accountability (EMERCEA).” The project aims to contribute towards the realisation of a vibrant and reliable media that consistently produces quality public affairs journalism that empowers citizens to engage in democratic processes.

UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 1

INTRODUCTION

his report looks at Ugandan news media coverage of the 2021 elections, focusing on five key publications, six television stations, and 35 radio stations. The fourth in our series of Treports from a project on monitoring media coverage of the Ugandan elections, it explores the attention these newspapers and a newsmagazine, television, and radio stations paid election- related news and issues from 1—13 January 2021 and the nature of their coverage. Comparisons are made to the findings from the October, November, and December 2020 reports. The publications studied are Bukedde (a Luganda-language daily), Daily Monitor, New Vision, The Observer, and The Independent newsmagazine. The television stations monitored are Baba TV, Bukedde TV, NBS, NTV, TV West, and UBC. The radio stations are listed in the methodology section.

The report relies mainly on quantitative content analysis to explore the volume of coverage of election-related news and issues by these selected media houses, the types of elections covered, the types of articles published (news, analysis, opinion, features, etc.), the reporting formats employed, the topics covered, and the tone of coverage. The analysis also covers the voices in the coverage, including the occupation and gender of sources.

The report further pays particular attention to the coverage of the 11 presidential candidates, focusing on who appeared on the front pages of the newspapers, the volume of coverage on each of them, how much space or airtime was dedicated to each candidate across the three media platforms monitored, and the tone of coverage of the contenders.

Finally, conclusions and recommendations are shared. 2 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

BACKGROUND

onitoring media coverage of the electoral process is an important part of election observation. As the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has noted, given the key role the media play in elections, “any observation effort should pay M 1 significant attention to the activities of the media and their coverage of elections”.

In Uganda, media monitoring is particularly critical this election cycle not only because of the absence of the usual observation missions, but also because the Electoral Commission had directed that campaigning should be conducted “scientifically” (i.e. soliciting votes largely through the media and digital platforms rather than the usual public rallies and other canvassing techniques that are said to violate social distancing regulations in response to the Covid-19 pandemic).

Media role in elections

The media (can) play five essential roles in elections: provision of information to enable voters make informed decisions; provision of platforms for debate through allowing exchange of opinions amongst the different contending groups and citizens; acting as a watchdog for fairness during election campaigning and polling; educating the public about election processes; and providing voice to the voters.2

The media landscape in Uganda

The media landscape in Uganda is characterised by a liberal regime of investment (at least on paper) and stringent regulation across print, radio, and television channels. Online and social media are increasingly becoming a major source of information and debate for middle class Ugandans.

Radio remains the biggest source of information for 80% of Ugandans (Afrobarometer, 2020)3. Television comes second at 31%, followed by the internet (14%), and social media (13%). While newspapers come last at 12%, they remain influential agenda setters for the public, political class, as well as other media.

1 OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (2012).Handbook on Media Monitoring for Election Observation Missions. Warsaw, Poland. 2 Marie-Soleil Frère (2010). The Media and Elections in Post-Conflict Central African Countries. Brussels: University of Brussels. 3 Afrobarometer (2020).”Feasible but unsuitable? Examining the practicality of a media-only 2021 election campaign during COVID-19: Findings from the Afrobarometer Round 8 Survey in Uganda.” UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 3

Although Uganda has some of the most vibrant media in eastern and southern Africa, for very many years the country has been characterised by the international press freedom watchdog Freedom House as “partly free”. And although the country’s constitution provides for the right to freedom of expression, including press freedom, several factors undermine these guarantees. They include obnoxious laws and regulations, government interference, regulatory overreach, harassment and intimidation by state security agents, advertiser influence, skewed media ownership, professional and human resource challenges within newsrooms, and low levels of media literacy among the population.

These challenges notwithstanding, the media landscape has grown from having one state broadcaster in the early 1990s to a multi-player, diversified industry today. The two biggest media houses — with interests in radio, television, print, and online — are the majority state-owned Vision Group, and Nation Media Group, a Nairobi-based conglomerate that is privately owned. In addition to the two market leaders, there are a number of other small privately owned entities: The Red Pepper, a daily tabloid; the weekly The Observer and The Independent. There are nearly 300 radio stations, and 30 TV stations. The state-run Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) has the widest TV and radio reach, broadcasting in multiple local languages as well as in English and Kiswahili.

Although UBC was supposed to have transformed into a public broadcaster, it has over the years remained very much a state broadcaster subservient to the ruling party and rarely providing for views critical of the government. In the 2016 election petition filed in the Supreme Court by former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi against the re-election of President Yoweri Museveni, the accusation of UBC favouring the incumbent, contrary to the law, was the only ground that was upheld. Ensuring that public media provided equitable coverage to all candidates as required by the constitution and the law was one of the recommendations that the Supreme Court asked the attorney general to address within 18 months after its March 2016 decision. The Presidential Elections Amendment (Act) 2020 was subsequently enacted to provide for sanctions against public media that violate the requirement of equitable coverage of candidates. According to the amended law, a public media house that is found to have breached this requirement will pay a maximum fine of Shs10 million and the person in charge of that media house shall upon conviction be liable to a fine of up to Shs10 million or a maximum jail term of two years or both.

The Uganda Communications (Content) Regulations of 2019 extend this requirement of equitable coverage of presidential candidates to all broadcasters, including private ones. Using language from the “Minimum Broadcasting Standards” enshrined in the Uganda Communications Act 2013, the regulations provide that an operator shall ensure that:

14 (1)(a) “Where a programme that is broadcast is in respect to a contender for a public office, that each contender is given equal opportunity on the programme in accordance with the Regulations.” The regulations also extend the requirement of equitable treatment to political parties. Regulation 18 (1) says: “Where, during an election period, the coverage of any broadcasting service extends to the discussion of elections, political parties and related issues, the broadcaster shall afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views and shall treat all political parties equitably.” 4 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

Concerns remain that many private radio stations are owned by politicians in the National Resistance Movement (NRM) or business people who are close to the ruling party, and that this plays a major role in determining the content of these stations, and who gets access to them. Although the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has in the past put radio ownership by politicians at about 15 per cent, some media watchers contend that it could be well over 70 per cent, especially in the countryside.4 Such ownership patterns have raised concerns about media diversity, especially given that many radio stations owned by politicians have been known to turn away members of the opposition and other voices of dissent.

The Catholic Church and other faith-based groups also own several radio stations that are influential in their regions of operation.

There are also fears that conglomeration could in future undermine the media pluralism and diversity that democracy demands.

The immediate environment in which elections were covered

For many journalists and media houses in the thick of the action, the 2021 elections could not be compared to any other. The Covid-19 pandemic not only posed health threats to journalists, the government’s response measures also made it impossible for them to have the usual physical interactions with many sources, including candidates. The pandemic also forced media houses, already grappling with the disruption caused by digital and social media, to make significant cutbacks on investments in journalism, including letting go of some of their journalists. Some of the journalists covering the campaigns were not sure they would still be employed after election day.

Although the Electoral Commission’s push for a “scientific election” gave many hopes to media managers that they would be able recoup the losses occasioned by the multi-year trend of falling audience numbers and the dip in advertising, there was always a risk that it would be difficult to balance between the public interest mission of journalism and the imperative to make a profit. Would media houses give enough time to regular election coverage or would they sell their space and time with reckless abandon to candidates lining up for paid-for programmes and advertising?

As the campaigns went on, a number of opposition candidates were denied access to radio stations where they had paid for talk shows. In most cases, these actions were at the behest of area police commanders and resident district commissioners. Other radio stations simply steered clear of opposition candidates on orders of their owners or managers. On some stations, such as Mama Bukedea in Bukedea District, no opposition content was aired throughout the campaign.

In October 2020, the Uganda Communications Commission and the Electoral Commission issued guidelines for media coverage of the general elections5. The preamble to these guidelines recognised

4 Report of the International Mission on Freedom of Expression in Uganda, September 2010. 5 https://mediacouncil.go.ug/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Electoral-Commission-Media-Guidelines-for-General- Elections_2.pdf UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 5

the central role the media play in the electoral process: providing the public with information on which to base their decisions; facilitating public debate on the choices before the voters; and providing a voice to voters. Further, it underscored that free, independent, responsible and pluralistic media were critical to advancing and sustaining democracy and peaceful, free and fair elections, and that the constitution and other legislation guarantee all citizens the right of freedom of speech and expression, which includes freedom of the press and other media, as well as the right of access to information.

Unfortunately, journalists operated in a hostile and toxic environment, and endured several cases of wanton mistreatment by police and other security agencies. Between the time the campaigns started in November 2020 to election day on 14 January 2021, ACME registered at least two dozen incidents involving the harassment, detention, assault and injury of journalists, and damage or loss of property — perpetrated by various state security agencies, and sometimes agents and supporters of the different presidential candidates.

The hostility started in Kampala on 3 November 2020, the day Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (aka Bobi Wine) of National Unity Platform (NUP) was nominated as a presidential candidate. A number of journalists from different media houses following his convoy to the nomination venue were pepper-sprayed by police. On the same day, Vision Group journalist Ronald Kakooza was arrested while covering events at the Forum for Democratic Change headquarters in Najjanankumbi, Kampala, in a build-up to the nomination of the party’s presidential candidate Patrick Oboi Amuriat. On 5 November, freelance journalist Moses Bwayo was shot at in the face with a rubber bullet while filming NUP’s Kyagulanyi, who was heading from Kibuli Mosque to the party headquarters in Kampala’s Kamwokya area. A week later, on 12 November, unknown people attacked NBS TV journalists Daniel Lutaaya and Thomas Kitimbo as they covered Kyagulanyi in Lira City. The attackers made off with the journalists’ laptop, camera chargers, and phones. They also damaged the journalists’ car. Reports indicate that a group of youth ambushed the media team as it entered Lira City, blocking the road with burning tyres and stones.

As the campaigning wore on, the attacks on journalists appeared to become more brutal and targeted, and they were widely seen as a move to keep them off the campaign trail. On 29 December, two journalists were injured after police fired at them as they dispersed Kyagulanyi’s supporters in Masaka. Saif-llah Ashraf Kasirye, a Radio One correspondent and Ghetto TV cameraman, sustained injuries to his head and was admitted in critical condition while NTV’s Ali Mivule was injured on the thigh by a teargas canister. Said Police Spokesperson Fred Enanga: “Tear gas was used to quell the violence and journalists were regrettably caught up during the process of dispersing the violent group [of Kyagulanyi’s supporters].” On the same day, NBS TV journalist Lutaaya, clad in a press jacket, sustained injuries when police fired projectiles which looked like tear gas canisters near a bodaboda bike he was riding to flee the chaos. The boda crashed into several several cars. Two days later, journalists covering Kyagulanyi in Kalangala were teargassed and a number of them detained and questioned for live-streaming the stand-off between NUP supporters (many of whom were arrested as well) and state security agents. Daily Monitor journalist Derrick Wandera, who was among those detained, was forced to smash his camera even after he told police he had not been live-streaming the event. 6 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

It is notable that for the most part the Electoral Commission remained silent in the face of these violations against the rights of journalists and the media. By election day, there had been no arrest or prosecution of any person involved in attacks on journalists since the campaigns started.

This hostile environment was compounded by a directive the Media Council of Uganda (MCU) issued on 10 December — the UN Human Rights Day. It required all practising journalists to register for accreditation or risk losing the right to cover the 2021 elections and other public events. In the same directive, the regulator asked all foreign journalists to get new accreditation cards and obtain a special media pass “showing particular geographical or thematic areas of intended media coverage” of the electoral campaigns.

The media fraternity protested the move especially because it came in the middle of an election campaign season when many journalists were already covering candidates in the field and had documented several cases of illegalities and excesses by police and state functionaries as they went about regulating public meetings and rallies by opposition candidates. The move was widely seen as a ploy to stifle media scrutiny of the electoral process as well as gag critical and independent journalism in the run-up to election day.

The Uganda Editors Guild and the Centre for Public Interest Law (CEPIL) went to court for a judicial review because the Media Council’s directive was “illegal, irregular and irrational”. They also applied for a temporary injunction stopping the Media Council and other agencies, including the police, from implementing the directive on accreditation. Meanwhile, the police issued a statement on 30 December warning that they would not allow journalists who are not accredited by the Media Council to cover the elections.

Justice Esta Nambayo of the High Court, who heard the case in her chambers, had promised to deliver her ruling by mail on election day. This never happened after the government ordered the shutdown of the Internet and social media a day before the elections, a move that had wide-ranging effects not only on media coverage but also on the transparency of the elections. Media houses that had invested in elaborate plans for election day coverage had to make do with SMS and expensive voice calls to get updates from their field reporters. At the same time, they were unable to tap into the many leads that social media usually opens up during such major national events.

As for the Media Council’s directive, the court quashed it, four days after the presidential and parliamentary elections, “for being illegal, irrational and procedurally irregular”. The court also issued an “order of permanent injunction…restraining the (government’s) security agencies from implementing the illegal and irrational directives of the Media Council of Uganda”.

Although the delayed ruling by Justice Nambayo was moot regarding the presidential and parliamentary elections, she noted that the local government elections to be held on 20 January were part of the general elections.

The court declared that “the registration of journalists by the Media Council of Uganda without an operational National Institute of Journalists of Uganda (NIJU) to enrol journalists in accordance with the Press and Journalists Act is illegal, irrational and procedurally irregular”. UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 7

Although there were not many reports of journalists who had been stopped from covering the elections on account of missing the Media Council‘s accreditation cards (the Electoral Commission had later disregarded this and carried out its own accreditation for those who would cover events at the national tally centre), there was an environment of uncertainty for many in the media.

Findings of previous monitoring reports on media coverage of elections

Previous monitoring reports on Ugandan elections have observed several gaps in media coverage, including the following: ll bias; ll disproportionate attention to the incumbent on public media; ll inaccurate reporting; ll self-censorship; ll poor portrayal of women candidates; ll denial of space or time for political advertising to opposition candidates; ll attempts by political actors, especially those in government, to influence visuals in newspapers and on television; ll disproportionate attention to candidates and political parties at the expense of voters; ll lack of serious interrogation of candidate promises and claims; ll predominance of episodic reporting and dearth of issue-based coverage; and ll the shortage of investigative reporting.

Principles identified in guidelines on media coverage of elections

The African Centre for Media Excellence and others, including the Uganda Communications Commission and the Electoral Commission, have developed guidelines for Ugandan journalists on covering the 2021 elections. Key principles in those guidelines include the following: ll accuracy; ll fairness; ll multiple sourcing; ll corrections and the right of reply; ll focus on issues; ll equitable coverage of key candidates; ll rejection of bribery; ll independence from vested interests; and ll interrogation of claims and promises by candidates and parties. 8 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What is the volume/quantity or frequency of election coverage in the media? 2. How much attention do the media pay to the different types of elections? 3. What type of reports do the media produce [news, commentary/opinion, features/special reports, etc]? 4. What election-related topics do media cover? 5. What is the nature of the reporting [conventional, enterprise, interpretive, or investigative]? 6. Who are the sources in media coverage [ordinary people, party officials, candidates, regulators, civil society actors, diplomats, religious leaders, central government officials, local leaders, police/security officials, etc]? 7. What is the gender of the sources? 8. What is the level of sourcing in election stories? (How many sources are used)? 9. Which presidential candidates are focused on in media coverage? 10. How much time or space is dedicated to each presidential candidate? 11. Which candidates appeared on newspaper front pages? 12. Which candidates’ pictures were used on newspaper front pages? 13. What is the tone of coverage of the presidential candidates? (positive, negative or neutral rating)? 14. How often do news stories interrogate candidate or party promises? 15. Are political candidates who are attacked given the right of reply? UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 9

METHODOLOGY

Scope of the study

he study focuses on Ugandan newspaper, radio, and television coverage of the 2021 election process. The monitoring was designed to cover all articles related to elections published in TBukedde, Daily Monitor, New Vision, The Observer and The Independent from 1–13 January 2021. These include all articles that fell under news, commentary/opinion, features, letters, Q&A, and profiles. In all 391 newspaper articles from the two weeks were analysed. Two daily news bulletins and one weekly talk-show were monitored for each TV and radio station. Some 583 stories and show episodes from six television stations, namely, Baba, Bukedde, NBS, NTV, TV West, and UBC, were analysed. The 35 radio stations monitored produced 1,047 stories and talk show episodes over the same two-week period.

Bukedde, Daily Monitor, and New Vision newspapers were selected because they are Uganda’s major dailies and are considered to have significant influence on the national conversation. The Independent, a weekly newsmagazine, and The Observer, a weekly newspaper, were selected because of their major focus on public affairs reporting. It is expected that their publication frequency would force them to offer more depth and investigation than the dailies. For television, NBS and NTV were included because they are the leading stations in public affairs programming, while UBC is the national broadcaster. It is expected to offer comprehensive news and a diversity of programming without paying as much attention to profit as the private stations. Baba TV, Bukedde TV, and TV West were included to add a regional flavour to the analysis. The schedule of TV programmes monitored is as follows:

TABLE 1: TV news shows and programmes monitored

TV station Time of 1st news bulletin Time of 2nd news bulletin Name of weekly talk-show

NBS 7.00pm 9.00pm Frontline NTV 7.00pm 9.00pm On the Spot UBC 7.00pm 10.00pm Behind the Headlines Baba TV 1.00pm 9.00pm The Platform Bukedde 7.00pm 10.00pm Akabinkano TV West 1.00pm 8.00pm Akadaara 10 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

The following radio stations, representing the different political regions of the country, were monitored:

TABLE 2: List of radio stations monitored by region

REGION RADIO STATION

Kampala (7) Capital FM CBS FM KFM Pearl FM Radio Sapientia Radio Simba UBC Blue Channel Central (4) Buddu FM Heart FM Mambule FM Radio Ssese Eastern (7) Baba FM Busoga One Etop NBS FM Open Gate Step FM Teso Broadcasting Service Western (9) Kasese Guide KRC Radio Kitara Radio West Spice FM Voice of Kamwenge Voice of Kigezi Voice of Muhabura Voice of Toro Northern (4) Mega FM Mighty Fire Radio Rupiny Unity FM West Nile (3) Arua One Paidha FM Radio Pacis Karamoja (1) Etoil A Karamoja UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 11

Methods of data collection

The study relied mainly on quantitative content analysis of election coverage by the selected publications, television, and radio stations. Key informant interviews with selected reporters and editors provided context for the findings.

Content analysis We analysed manifest content in the main. “Manifest content refers to what is explicitly stated and draws on the objective and replicable qualities of quantitative methods” (Hilton and Hunt (2010).6 However, where appropriate and necessary, we also undertook qualitative analysis of latent content.7 Content analysis was used to get an all-round sense of the nature of coverage in terms of both quantity and quality. Stories were coded and analysed based on a detailed coding sheet that contained a number of variables that were necessary to answer the research questions.

The variables of interest included the following: 8

1. Publication/TV/radio station 2. Volume of election coverage 3. Type of election (parliamentary vs presidential) 4. Type of articles published in newspapers 5. Type of stories broadcast on TV and radio stations 6. Space allocated to election-related articles in newspapers 7. Time allocated to election-related stories on TV and radio 8. Frequency of stories on the different presidential candidates 9. Frequency of front-page stories on the different presidential candidates 10. Frequency of pictures of the different presidential candidates 11. Space allocated to presidential candidates in newspapers 12. Time allocated to presidential candidates on TV and radio 13. Tone of election coverage (general) 14. Tone of coverage of presidential candidates 15. Use of the right of reply 16. Event- vs issue-based reporting 17. Origin of election stories 18. Reporting format of election stories (conventional; enterprise/interpretive; investigation)

6 Hilton, S. & Hunt, K. (2010). UK newspaper representations of the 2009-10 outbreak of swine flu: one health scare not over-hyped by the media?” Research Report, J Epidemiol, Community Health 7 See, Krippendorf, K. (2004). Content analysis: an introduction to its methodology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. 8 A full list of the variables and their definitions is detailed in the coding sheet in Annex 1. 12 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

19. Number of sources in election stories 20. Type of sources in election stories 21. Gender of sources in election stories 22. Use of background and context used in election stories 23. Interrogation of claims made by presidential candidates 24. Topics/issues addressed in election stories

The content analysis was conducted by 12 research assistants who coded the data after attending a short training workshop. Samples of the preliminary data entered were analysed at different points to test intercoder reliability (or the level of agreement between the different assistants doing the coding). Two reliability tests were conducted and the results showed a high degree of agreement on the way different variables were coded.

For newspapers, as well as television and radio news, the unit of analysis was the story; each story was treated as a whole unit of meaning. For radio and television talk shows, the programme (e.g. talk show and in some cases, the segment) was the unit of analysis.

The data were gathered using standard coding forms administered by the coders. They relied on a detailed codebook containing definitions of all the content categories that were monitored. The coding procedure involved a rigorous and methodical process of identifying and analysing election- related stories. The data were captured, processed, and analysed using SPSS.

The presidential candidates

In October, there was no clarity on how many candidates would eventually stand. Most newspapers focused on President Yoweri Museveni, National Unity Platform’s Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, Forum for Democratic Change’s Patrick Oboi Amuriat, and Alliance for National Transformation’s Gregory Mugisha Muntu. UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 13

The eventual list of candidates nominated in November, and who ended up on the ballot, had the following:

Candidate Political Party/Affiliation

Fred Mwesigye Independent Gregory Mugisha Muntu Alliance for National Transformation Henry Tumukunde Independent John Katumba Independent Joseph Kabuleta Independent Nancy Kalembe Independent Norbert Mao Democratic Party Patrick Oboi Amuriat Forum for Democratic Change Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) National Unity Platform Willy Mayambala Independent Yoweri Kaguta Museveni National Resistance Movement

Volume of stories

The five newspapers monitored published 391 election stories in the 13 days before voting day, which in proportionate terms was a higher return than in December. New Vision continued to have a lead over the others, with a share of 41%, followed by Bukedde with 30% and Daily Monitor with 25%.

TABLE 3A: Number of newspaper stories by publication

October November December January

Publication Frequency % Frequency % Frequency % Frequency %

New Vision 168 36.6 318 36.5 292 40.1 160 40.9 Daily Monitor 149 32.5 308 35.4 212 29.1 98 25.1 Bukedde 127 27.7 209 24 189 25.9 116 29.7 The Independent 8 1.7 17 2 23 3.2 4 1.0 The Observer 7 1.5 19 2.2 13 1.8 13 3.3 Total 459 100 871 100 729 100 391 100.0

The six television stations monitored once again carried more stories (583) in January than the newspapers. NBS TV led with a share of 24.2% followed closely by NTV with 22.5%, and Bukedde TV with 19.6%. The national broadcaster, UBC, had the lowest share of election stories in January. 14 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

TABLE 3B: Number of television stories by station

October November December January

TV station Frequency % Frequency % Frequency % Frequency %

NBS 232 30.4 285 19.1 243 20.5 141 24.2 NTV 202 26.5 371 24.8 233 19.6 131 22.5 UBC 130 17 330 22.1 205 17.3 52 8.9 Bukedde 98 12.8 271 18.2 243 20.5 114 19.6 Baba TV 76 10 161 10.8 154 13 89 15.3 TV West 25 3.3 75 5 109 9.2 56 9.6 Total 763 100 1493 100 1187 100 583 100.0

Kampala-based radio stations monitored maintained a higher share of stories in January (36.4%), followed by western Uganda (21%), and eastern with 16.6%. Overall, in proportionate terms, radio carried a much higher volume of stories in the two weeks of January than in December.

TABLE 3C: Number of radio stories by region

October November December January

Region Radio stations Freq % Freq % Freq % Freq %

Kampala 7 417 37.3 868 34.9 503 34.4 381 36.4 Eastern 7 254 22.7 579 23.3 284 19.4 174 16.6 Western 9 216 19.3 563 22.6 395 27 220 21.0 West Nile 3 70 6.3 203 8.2 73 5 93 8.9 Northern 4 63 5.6 137 5.5 102 7 73 7.0 Central 4 71 6.4 88 3.5 73 5 79 7.5 Karamoja 1 27 2.4 48 1.9 31 2.1 27 2.6 Total 35 1,118 100 2,486 100 1,461 100 1,047 100.0

Type of election (parliamentary vs presidential)

Unlike in previous months, there were more radio and television stories that focused on both the presidential and parliamentary election campaigns in January. Newspapers, however, continued to pay more attention to the presidential elections, although the proportion of stories focusing on both elections increased significantly. UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 15

TABLE 4: Type of election stories by media platform

Newspaper Television Radio

Type of election Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Frequency Percent

Both 160 40.9 294 50.4 639 61.0 Parliamentary election 66 16.9 58 9.9 123 11.7 Presidential election 165 42.2 231 39.6 285 27.2 Total 391 100.0 583 100.0 1047 100.0

Trend in type of election in newspaper coverage 16 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

Trend in type of election in television coverage

Trend in type of election in radio coverage UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 17

Type of articles published in newspapers

News stories continued to account for the highest proportion of newspaper election coverage in January, although there was an increase in the share of general commentary and features. The number of news analyses dropped.

TABLE 5A: Frequency of different types of newspaper articles

October November December January

Type of article Frequency % Frequency % Frequency % Frequency %

News 363 79.1 662 76 564 77.4 280 71.6 General commentary 36 7.8 87 10 46 6.3 37 9.5 or opinion Feature 26 5.7 53 6.1 56 7.7 50 12.8 News analysis 10 2.2 15 1.7 10 1.4 1 0.2 Editorial 10 2.2 24 2.8 12 1.6 8 2.0 Letter to the Editor 10 2.2 24 2.8 26 3.6 7 1.8 Q&A interviews 2 0.4 6 0.7 10 1.4 5 1.3 Profile 2 0.4 0 0 5 0.7 3 0.8 Total 459 100 871 100 729 100 391 100.0

Type of stories broadcast on TV and radio stations

News accounted for 19 out of every 20 stories on television. The proportion of interviews increased, while packages/features took a dip.

TABLE 5B: Frequency of different types of television stories/shows

October November December January

Story type Frequency % Frequency % Frequency % Frequency %

News 668 87.5 1382 92.6 1114 93.9 556 95.4 Commentary 41 5.4 24 1.6 26 2.2 4 0.7 Package/feature 27 3.5 33 2.2 28 2.4 7 1.2 Interview 27 3.5 54 3.6 19 1.6 16 2.7 Total 763 100 1493 100 1187 100 583 100.0

On radio, news accounted for an even higher share of the coverage in January. The proportion of commentary increased. 18 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

TABLE 5C: Frequency of different types of radio stories/shows

October November December January

Story type Frequency % Frequency % Frequency % Frequency %

News 1,054 94.3 2,401 96.6 1,422 97.3 1,017 97.1 Commentary 55 4.9 67 2.7 21 1.4 21 2.0 Interview 9 0.8 16 0.6 13 0.9 6 0.6 Package/feature 0 0 2 0.1 5 0.3 3 0.3 Total 1,118 100 2,486 100 1,461 100 1,047 100.0

Space allocated to election-related articles in newspapers

The proportion of space allocated to election coverage by the newspapers monitored remained just about the same in January. The four newspapers with print editions gave 179,458cm2 (about 217 full pages) of space to election coverage. New Vision dedicated the highest proportion of space to election coverage (38.4%) followed by Daily Monitor with 31%.

TABLE 6: Newspaper space dedicated to election coverage

October November December January

Publication Space % Pages Space % Pages Space % Pages Space % Pages (cm2) (cm2) (cm2) (cm2)

Daily Monitor 75,132 35.9 91 124,924 35.8 151 106,206 32.9 129 55,564 31.0 67 New Vision 70,135 33.5 85 136,556 39.1 165 136,033 42.2 165 68,833 38.4 83 Bukedde 60,532 28.9 73 76,398 21.9 92 73,102 22.7 89 46,847 26.1 57 The Observer 3,568 1.7 4 11,492 3.3 14 7,263 2.3 9 8,214 4.6 10 The ------Independent Total 209,367 100 253 349,370 100 423 322,604 100 392 179,458 100.0 217

Time allocated to election-related stories on TV and radio

The five TV stations monitored dedicated 2,002 minutes (nearly 33 hours) to elections in the 13 days before the January polls. NBS TV took the highest share of time to elections (24.2%), followed by NTV (21.8%), and Bukedde TV (20.5%). UBC dedicated the least amount of time to election coverage. UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 19

TABLE 7A: Time allocated to election coverage by television stations

October November December January

TV Time % Time % Time % Time % station (Minutes) (Minutes) (Minutes) (Minutes)

NBS 1,178 31.8 1,429 21 899 19.2 485 24.2 NTV 1,037 27.9 1,764 26 928 19.8 437 21.8 UBC 499 13.5 1,524 22.4 902 19.2 156 7.8 Bukedde 434 11.7 1,083 15.9 937 20 410 20.5 Baba TV 285 7.7 546 8 505 10.8 349 17.4 TV West 276 7.4 446 6.7 517 11 165 8.2 Total 3,709 100 6,791 100 4,688 100 2,002 100.0

Once again, on average, the 35 radio stations monitored dedicated far less time to the elections than television. The 2,075 minutes they gave translates to an average of about one hour of coverage for each station over the 13 days before the elections.

TABLE 7B: Time allocated to election coverage by radio stations

October November December January

Region No. of Radio Time % Time % Time % Time % stations (Minutes) (Minutes) (Minutes) (Minutes)

Kampala 7 1,937 45.5 2,890 38.7 1,450 33.3 801 38.6 Western 9 949 22.3 1,906 25.5 1,129 25.9 375 18.1 Eastern 7 722 16.9 1,633 21.9 484 11.1 318 15.3 Northern 4 154 3.6 381 5.1 187 4.3 108 5.2 West Nile 3 176 4.1 315 4.2 135 3.1 156 7.5 Central 4 268 6.3 254 3.4 908 20.9 265 12.8 Karamoja 1 54 1.3 89 1.2 59 1.4 52 2.5 Total 35 4,260 100 7,468 100 4,352 100 2075 100.0 20 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

KEY FINDINGS

Frequency of stories on presidential candidates

TABLE 8A: Volume of stories on presidential candidates across the three media platforms (Jan)

Newspaper Television Radio

Candidate Frequency % Frequency % Frequency %

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 49 32.0 55 23.4 47 18.6 Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu 40 26.1 55 23.4 70 27.7 Patrick Oboi Amuriat 30 19.6 51 21.7 45 17.8 Mugisha Muntu 12 7.8 22 9.4 22 8.7 Norbert Mao 5 3.3 17 7.2 20 7.9 Nancy Kalembe 5 3.3 10 4.3 13 5.1 Henry Tumukunde 4 2.6 15 6.4 17 6.7 Joseph Kabuleta 3 2.0 2 0.9 2 0.8 Willy Mayambala 2 1.3 2 0.9 3 1.2 John Katumba 2 1.3 4 1.7 11 4.3 Fred Mwesigye 1 0.7 2 0.9 3 1.2 Total 153 100.0 235 100.0 253 100.0

President Museveni received the highest proportion of stories in newspapers, with 32% against challenger Kyagulanyi’s 26.1%. The two were tired with a 23.4% share of television stories, while Kyagulanyi attracted the highest proportion of stories on radio, with 27.7%. FDC’s Amuriat was third across all three platforms. Further analysis shows that while most stories on Museveni were either about campaign promises, commissioning or launching of public infrastructure, or citizen demands, coverage of Kyagulanyi focused mostly on the candidate strategies, arrests, or Covid-19 response guidelines. Stories about Amuriat focused mainly on candidate promises and arrests. UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 21

TABLE 8B: Volume of newspaper stories on presidential candidates by publication (Jan)

Candidate Bukedde Daily New The The Observer (n=44) Monitor Vision Independent (n=4) (n=38) (n=64) (n=3)

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 38.6 26.3 32.8 33.3 0.0 Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu 31.8 23.7 17.2 66.7 100.0 Patrick Oboi Amuriat 15.9 23.7 21.9 0.0 0.0 Mugisha Muntu 2.3 7.9 12.5 0.0 0.0 Norbert Mao 2.3 5.3 3.1 0.0 0.0 Nancy Kalembe 2.3 2.6 4.7 0.0 0.0 Henry Tumukunde 2.3 5.3 1.6 0.0 0.0 Joseph Kabuleta 2.3 2.6 1.6 0.0 0.0 Willy Mayambala 0.0 2.6 1.6 0.0 0.0 John Katumba 2.3 0.0 1.6 0.0 0.0 Fred Mwesigye 0.0 0.0 1.6 0.0 0.0

Museveni received the highest proportion of coverage in the three dailies, with New Vision giving him the widest advantage (32.8% against Kyagulanyi’s 17.2%). All The Observer’s four stories on presidential candidates were about Kyagulanyi, while two of The Independent’s three reports were on the main challenger.

TABLE 8C: Volume of television stories on presidential candidates by TV station (Jan)

Candidate Baba TV Bukedde NBS NTV TV West UBC (n=20) (n=51) (n=43) (n=82) (n=17) (n=22)

Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu 25.0 23.5 41.9 20.7 5.9 9.1 Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 35.0 31.4 25.6 8.5 35.3 36.4 Patrick Oboi Amuriat 0.0 25.5 18.6 29.3 11.8 18.2 Mugisha Muntu 10.0 5.9 4.7 12.2 17.6 9.1 Norbert Mao 0.0 3.9 7.0 12.2 11.8 0.0 Henry Tumukunde 20.0 5.9 0.0 0.0 11.8 27.3 Nancy Kalembe 5.0 2.0 0.0 8.5 5.9 0.0 John Katumba 5.0 0.0 0.0 3.7 0.0 0.0 Willy Mayambala 0.0 2.0 2.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 Joseph Kabuleta 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.4 0.0 0.0 Fred Mwesigye 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.4 0.0 0.0 22 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

Museveni received the highest share of stories on four of the six stations monitored. The four are UBC, TV West, Baba TV, and Bukedde TV. Kyagulanyi led on NBS TV with 41.9% against Museveni’s 25.6%, while Amuriat received the highest attention on NTV, with 29.3% against second-placed Kyagulanyi who had a share of 20.7%. Museveni was in joint fifth with Nancy Kalembe.

Baba TV gave the lowest proportion of coverage by any station (5.9%) to Kyagulanyi. Mugisha Muntu, Amuriat, Nobert Mao and Henry Tumukunde all received more coverage on the station than the leading opposition candidate. UBC also gave more coverage to Tumukunde and Amuriat than to Kyagulanyi, who was tied with Mugisha Muntu. UBC editors blamed Kyagulanyi’s team for not being responsive, never mind that during this period the candidate continued to be involved in dramatic standoffs with the police and security agencies.

TABLE 8D: Volume of radio stories on presidential candidates by region (January)

Candidate Central Eastern Kampala Karamoja Northern West Nile Western (n=15) (n=49) (n=115) (n=1) (n=7) (n=18) (n=48)

Robert Kyagulanyi 33.3 22.4 27.8 0.0 14.3 33.3 31.3 Ssentamu Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 13.3 20.4 13.9 100.0 57.1 27.8 18.8 Patrick Oboi Amuriat 20.0 12.2 20.0 0.0 14.3 11.1 20.8 Mugisha Muntu 6.7 4.1 8.7 0.0 0.0 11.1 14.6 Norbert Mao 6.7 10.2 8.7 0.0 14.3 11.1 2.1 Henry Tumukunde 0.0 10.2 8.7 0.0 0.0 5.6 2.1 Nancy Kalembe 20.0 10.2 2.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.2 John Katumba 0.0 6.1 4.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.3 Willy Mayambala 0.0 4.1 0.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Fred Mwesigye 0.0 0.0 2.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Joseph Kabuleta 0.0 0.0 1.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Kyagulanyi received the highest proportion of stories on radio stations monitored in all the regions, except northern Uganda and Karamoja where Museveni came on top. Kyagulanyi’s widest advantage on radio was in central Uganda where he attracted 33.3% against Museveni’s 13.3%. Amuriat was second in central Uganda. The FDC president also attracted more stories than Museveni in western Uganda. UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 23

Frequency of front-page stories on presidential candidates

TABLE 9A: Frequency of front-page stories about presidential candidates

October November December January

Presidential candidate Front % Front % Front % Front % page page page page

Robert Kyagulanyi 2 28.6 20 28.2 16 37.2 2 33.3 Ssentamu Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 1 14.3 17 23.9 10 23.3 4 66.7 Patrick Oboi Amuriat 2 28.6 8 11.3 5 11.6 0 0 Henry Tumukunde - - 7 9.9 3 7 0 0 Mugisha Muntu 1 14.3 6 8.5 2 4.7 0 0 Willy Mayambala - - 4 5.6 0 0 0 0 Fred Mwesigye - - 3 4.2 0 0 0 0 Norbert Mao - - 3 4.2 3 7 0 0 Nancy Kalembe - - 2 2.8 2 4.7 0 0 Joseph Kabuleta - - 1 1.4 1 2.3 0 0 John Katumba - - 0 0 1 2.3 0 0 Other 1 14.3 Total 7 100 71 100 43 100 6 100

Museveni attracted more front-page stories (four) than Kyagulanyi, who received two. No other candidate was covered on the front page in the two weeks before voting day.

TABLE 9B: Frequency of front-page stories about presidential candidates by publication (Jan)

Candidate Bukedde Daily Monitor New Vision The The (n=3) (n=1) (n=2) Independent Observer

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 66.7 0.0 100.0 - - Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu 33.3 100.0 0.0 - - Patrick Oboi Amuriat 0.0 0.0 0.0 - - Mugisha Muntu 0.0 0.0 0.0 - - Norbert Mao 0.0 0.0 0.0 - - Nancy Kalembe 0.0 0.0 0.0 - - Henry Tumukunde 0.0 0.0 0.0 - - Joseph Kabuleta 0.0 0.0 0.0 - - Willy Mayambala 0.0 0.0 0.0 - - John Katumba 0.0 0.0 0.0 - - Fred Mwesigye 0.0 0.0 0.0 - - Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 - - 24 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

Museveni was the subject of two of Bukedde’s three front page stories. New Vision’s two page-one stories were both on the incumbent, while Daily Monitor’s single story was about Kyagulanyi.

Frequency of pictures of presidential candidates

TABLE 10A: Frequency of pictures of presidential candidates on the front page

October November December January

Presidential candidate Pictures Percent Pictures Percent Pictures Percent Pictures Percent

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 3 37.5 26 43.3 23 51.1 11 84.6 Robert Kyagulanyi 2 25 17 28.3 12 26.7 1 7.7 Ssentamu Patrick Oboi Amuriat 2 25 10 16.7 9 20 1 7.7 Mugisha Muntu 1 12.5 4 6.7 - - - - Willy Mayambala - - 2 3.3 - - - - Nancy Kalembe - - 1 1.7 - - - - Henry Tumukunde ------Norbert Mao - - - - 1 2.2 - - Joseph Kabuleta ------John Katumba ------Fred Mwesigye ------Total 8 100 60 100 45 100 13 100

Museveni enjoyed a big advantage on front-page pictures, attracting a share of 84.6%. Both Kyagulanyi and Amuriat had only one photo on the front page.

TABLE 10B: Frequency of pictures of presidential candidates on the front page by publication (January)

Candidate Bukedde Daily Monitor New Vision The The (n=6) (n=2) (n=5) Independent Observer

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 83.3 50.0 100.0 - - Patrick Oboi Amuriat 16.7 0.0 0.0 - - Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu 0.0 50.0 0.0 - - Mugisha Muntu 0.0 0.0 0.0 - - Norbert Mao 0.0 0.0 0.0 - - Nancy Kalembe 0.0 0.0 0.0 - - UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 25

Candidate Bukedde Daily Monitor New Vision The The (n=6) (n=2) (n=5) Independent Observer

Henry Tumukunde 0.0 0.0 0.0 - - Joseph Kabuleta 0.0 0.0 0.0 - - Willy Mayambala 0.0 0.0 0.0 - - John Katumba 0.0 0.0 0.0 - - Fred Mwesigye 0.0 0.0 0.0 - - Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 - -

All five of theNew Vision front-page photos were of incumbent Museveni, while he was at the centre of five of Bukedde’s six pictures. Daily Monitor carried one front-page photo of each of the two leading candidates — Museveni and Kyagulanyi.

Space allocated to presidential candidates in newspapers

TABLE 11A: Newspaper space allocated to presidential candidates

October November December January

Candidate Space % Pages Space % Pages Space % Pages Space % Pages (cm2) (cm2) (cm2) (cm2)

Yoweri Kaguta 13,438 29.6 16 90,557 23.8 110 99,860 29.2 121 28,080 35.6 34 Museveni Robert 12,351 27.2 15 106,350 28 129 86,720 25.4 105 20,532 26.1 25 Kyagulanyi Ssentamu Patrick Oboi 7,989 17.6 10 48,830 12.8 59 54,812 16 66 13,964 17.7 17 Amuriat Mugisha Muntu 4,195 9.2 5 34,127 9 41 26,423 7.7 32 5,302 6.7 6 Henry 2,349 5.2 3 33,334 8.8 40 18,613 5.4 23 1,883 2.4 2 Tumukunde Norbert Mao 1,715 3.8 2 22,856 6 28 23,802 7 29 3,095 3.9 4 Joseph 608 1.3 1 7,649 2 9 10,275 3 12 1,149 1.5 1 Kabuleta Willy 420 0.9 1 6,367 1.7 8 3,231 0.9 4 1,260 1.6 2 Mayambala Fred Mwesigye 344 0.8 0 3,665 1 4 796 0.2 1 429 0.5 1 Nancy Kalembe 344 0.8 0 16,360 4.3 20 8,186 2.4 10 1,920 2.4 2 John Katumba - - - 10,025 2.6 12 8,985 2.6 11 1,196 1.5 1 Other 1,694 3.7 2 ------Total 45,447 100 55 380,120 100 460 341,703 100 414 78,810 100.0 95 26 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

As in December, stories about President Museveni took up the biggest proportion of space allocated to presidential candidates in the period monitored in January with 35.6% or 34 pages against second placed Kyagulanyi’s 26.1% or 25 pages. Amuriat was again third with 17.7%.

TABLE 11B: Space allocated to presidential candidates by publication (January)

Candidate Bukedde Daily New Vision The Observer The (%) Monitor (%) (%) (%) Independent

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 41 28 42 0 - Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu 30 24 17 100 - Patrick Oboi Amuriat 15 22 19 0 - Mugisha Muntu 4 9 8 0 - Norbert Mao 4 1 6 0 - Nancy Kalembe 0 4 3 0 - Henry Tumukunde 1 6 1 0 - Willy Mayambala 0 4 1 0 - John Katumba 4 0 1 0 - Joseph Kabuleta 1 4 1 0 - Fred Mwesigye 0 0 1 0 -

New Vision once again gave a much higher proportion of space to Museveni (42%) than any other publication, with Kyagulanyi coming a distant second with 17%. Bukedde also gave Museveni more space, but the difference between him and Kyagulanyi was not as pronounced. The gap between the two top candidates was even narrower in Daily Monitor, where Museveni edged Kyagulanyi with 28% against 24%.

Time allocated to presidential candidates on TV and radio

TABLE 12A: Total time allocated to presidential candidates on television

October November December January

Candidates – TV Time % Time % Time % Time % (Minutes) (Minutes) (Minutes) (Minutes)

Robert Kyagulanyi 139 18.9 1,360 25.2 967 29.4 201 20.8 Ssentamu Yoweri Kaguta 157 21.4 1,358 25.1 1,199 36.5 394 40.7 Museveni Patrick Oboi Amuriat 149 20.3 779 14.4 470 14.3 162 16.7 Henry Tumukunde 41 5.6 524 9.7 178 5.4 38 3.9 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 27

October November December January

Candidates – TV Time % Time % Time % Time % (Minutes) (Minutes) (Minutes) (Minutes)

Mugisha Muntu 159 21.6 470 8.7 186 5.7 62 6.4 Nancy Kalembe 14 1.9 351 6.5 44 1.3 26 2.7 Norbert Mao 39 5.3 194 3.6 51 1.6 52 5.4 John Katumba 2 0.3 181 3.4 128 3.9 10 1.0 Willy Mayambala 4 0.5 73 1.3 24 0.7 12 1.2 Joseph Kabuleta 3 0.4 67 1.2 30 0.9 4 0.4 Fred Mwesigye 14 1.9 46 0.9 12 0.4 7 0.7 Other 14 1.9 - - Total 735 100 5401 100 3,289 100 968 100.0

Museveni received a much higher share of total time in television coverage (40.7%) in January, with Kyagulanyi coming second with 20.8%. Amuriat was third with a share of 16.7%. Museveni’s total time in television coverage increased in January while Kyagulanyi’s dropped.

TABLE 12B: Time allocated to presidential candidates on television news

October November December January

Candidates Time % Time % Time % Time % (Minutes) (Minutes) (Minutes) (Minutes)

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 126 21.5 1,237 27.5 1076 38 309 35.0 Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu 139 23.8 1,154 25.7 666 23.5 201 22.8 Patrick Oboi Amuriat 149 25.5 628 14 435 15.4 162 18.3 Mugisha Muntu 40 6.8 349 7.8 186 6.6 62 7.0 Henry Tumukunde 41 7 336 7.5 178 6.3 38 4.3 Nancy Kalembe 14 2.4 230 5.1 44 1.6 26 2.9 Norbert Mao 39 6.7 194 4.3 51 1.8 52 5.9 John Katumba 2 0.3 181 4 128 4.5 10 1.1 Willy Mayambala 4 0.7 73 1.6 24 0.8 12 1.4 Joseph Kabuleta 3 0.5 67 1.5 30 1.1 4 0.5 Fred Mwesigye 14 2.4 46 1 12 0.4 7 0.8 Other 14 2.4 ------Total 585 100 4494 100 2,830 100 883 100.0 28 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

Museveni also received a higher share of time on television news (35%) than Kyagulanyi (22.8%) and Amuriat (18.3%) in the period monitored in January. It had been the same pattern in December.

TABLE 12C: Total time allocated to presidential candidates by TV station (January)

Candidate Baba TV Bukedde NBS (%) NTV (%) TV West UBC (%) (%) (%) (%)

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 67 61 32 9 37 47 Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu 16 14 38 26 7 11 (Bobi Wine) Patrick Oboi Amuriat 0 16 12 31 12 12 Mugisha Muntu 4 3 4 11 13 8 Norbert Mao 0 2 9 9 12 0 Henry Tumukunde 9 2 0 0 12 22 Nancy Kalembe 3 0 0 7 6 0 Willy Mayambala 0 1 5 0 0 0 John Katumba 2 0 0 3 0 0 Fred Mwesigye 0 0 0 3 0 0 Joseph Kabuleta 0 0 0 1 0 0

Museveni received the highest proportion of time on four of the six television stations monitored. These included Baba TV, Bukedde TV, TV West and UBC. NBS TV gave a higher share of time to Kyagulanyi (38%) than Museveni (32%), while NTV gave more time to Amuriat (31%), followed by Kyagulanyi (26%). Museveni took up only 9% of the time allocated to presidential candidates on NTV.

TABLE 12D: Time allocated to presidential candidates on TV news by station (January)

Candidate Baba TV Bukedde NBS (%) NTV (%) TV West UBC (%) (%) (%) (%)

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 66.5 46.5 32.2 8.5 37.3 47.1 Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu 15.8 19.5 37.7 26.3 6.9 10.8 Patrick Oboi Amuriat 0.0 21.6 11.7 30.8 12.5 12.5 Mugisha Muntu 4.0 4.7 4.2 10.6 12.8 7.6 Norbert Mao 0.0 2.9 8.8 9.3 12.5 0.0 Henry Tumukunde 8.6 2.6 0.0 0.0 12.5 21.9 Nancy Kalembe 2.8 0.7 0.0 7.2 5.5 0.0 Willy Mayambala 0.0 1.5 5.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 John Katumba 2.3 0.0 0.0 2.9 0.0 0.0 Fred Mwesigye 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.9 0.0 0.0 Joseph Kabuleta 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.5 0.0 0.0 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 29

Stories about Museveni received the highest proportion of time on four of the six television stations monitored. The four stations are Baba TV, Bukedde TV, TV West, and UBC. NBS gave a higher proportion of time to Kyagulanyi while NTV gave a higher share to Amuriat. Museveni was in fifth place on NTV.

UBC gave the lowest proportion of time to Kyagulanyi (10.8%) than any other station, with stories about Tumukunde (21.9%) and Amuriat (12.5%) receiving a higher share of time. Five candidates, including Nobert Mao, Nancy Kalembe, Willy Mayambala, John Katumba, Fred Mwesigye, and Joseph Kabuleta got not airtime on UBC news in the period monitored in January.

TABLE 13A: Total Time allocated to presidential candidates on radio

October November December January

Candidate Time % Time % Time % Time % (Minutes) (Minutes) (minutes) (minutes)

Robert Kyagulanyi 196 33.7 2,666 26.8 1,323 32.2 133 26.9 Ssentamu Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 139 23.9 1,991 20 1,298 31.6 116 23.5 Patrick Oboi Amuriat 100 17.2 1,169 11.7 460 11.2 65 13.2 Henry Tumukunde 31 5.3 899 9 319 7.8 25 5.1 Mugisha Muntu 44 7.6 730 7.3 133 3.2 40 8.1 Nancy Kalembe 5 0.9 587 5.9 62 1.5 18 3.6 Norbert Mao 23 4 550 5.5 89 2.2 40 8.1 John Katumba 0 0 533 5.4 328 8 43 8.7 Joseph Kabuleta 11 1.9 363 3.6 45 1.1 5 1.0 Fred Mwesigye 3 0.5 243 2.4 21 0.5 4 0.8 Willy Mayambala 3 0.5 225 2.3 36 0.9 5 1.0 Other 26 4.5 - - - - Total 581 100 9,955 100 4,114 100 494 100.0

As in the previous months, Kyagulanyi received the highest proportion of time (26.9%) on the radio stations monitored in January. Museveni was second with 23.5% and Amuriat third with 13.2%. 30 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

TABLE 13B: Time allocated to presidential candidates on radio news

October November December January

Candidates - News Time % Time % Time % Time % (Minutes) (Minutes) (Minutes) (Minutes)

Robert Kyagulanyi 146 31.5 1,435 27.2 541 28 133 28.8 Ssentamu Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 84 18.1 839 15.9 502 26 116 25.1 Patrick Oboi Amuriat 87 18.8 592 11.2 256 13.2 65 14.1 Henry Tumukunde 31 6.7 512 9.7 163 8.4 25 5.4 Mugisha Muntu 44 9.5 435 8.2 133 6.9 40 8.7 Norbert Mao 23 5 318 6 89 4.6 40 8.7 John Katumba - - 393 7.4 86 4.4 11 2.4 Nancy Kalembe 5 1.1 297 5.6 62 3.2 18 3.9 Joseph Kabuleta 11 2.4 175 3.3 45 2.3 5 1.1 Willy Mayambala 3 0.6 214 4.1 36 1.9 5 1.1 Fred Mwesigye 3 0.6 69 1.3 21 1.1 4 0.9 Other 26 5.6 ------Total 463 100 5,279 100 1,934 100 462 100.0

Stories about Kyagulanyi once again received the highest proportion of time on the radio stations monitored in January. Museveni stories followed closely in second place. Amuriat stories were in third place. The January results mean stories about Kyagulanyi received the highest proportion of time since the start of the campaign season in October.

TABLE 13C: Total time allocated to presidential candidates on radio by region (January)

Candidate Central Eastern Kampala Karamoja Northern West Nile Western (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)

Robert Kyagulanyi 30 29 25 0 8 38 28 Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 16 22 22 100 58 26 29 Patrick Oboi Amuriat 13 12 12 0 12 10 19 John Katumba 0 4 14 0 0 0 4 Norbert Mao 19 10 8 0 23 12 1 Mugisha Muntu 8 3 7 0 0 12 16 Henry Tumukunde 0 8 7 0 0 4 1 Nancy Kalembe 14 8 2 0 0 0 2 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 31

Candidate Central Eastern Kampala Karamoja Northern West Nile Western (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)

Willy Mayambala 0 4 1 0 0 0 0 Joseph Kabuleta 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 Fred Mwesigye 0 0 1 0 0 0 0

Disaggregated results show Kyagulanyi received more radio time than all other candidates in Kampala, and the Central, Eastern, and West Nile regions while Museveni got more time in the Western, Northern, and Karamoja regions.

TABLE 13D: Time allocated to presidential candidates on radio news by region (January)

Candidate Central Eastern Kampala Karamoja Northern West Nile Western (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)

Robert Kyagulanyi 30 29 29 0 8 38 28 Ssentamu Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 16 22 25 100 58 26 29 Patrick Oboi Amuriat 13 12 14 0 12 10 19 Norbert Mao 19 10 9 0 23 12 1 Mugisha Muntu 8 3 8 0 0 12 16 Henry Tumukunde 0 8 7 0 0 4 1 Nancy Kalembe 14 8 2 0 0 0 2 John Katumba 0 4 2 0 0 0 4 Willy Mayambala 0 4 1 0 0 0 0 Joseph Kabuleta 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 Fred Mwesigye 0 0 2 0 0 0 0

Kyagulanyi received more radio time than all other candidates in four of the six regions monitored, namely central, eastern, Kampala, and West Nile. Museveni led significantly in Karamoja (where no other candidate received time) and northern Uganda. He enjoyed a much narrower lead in western Uganda. 32 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

Tone of coverage

TABLE 14A: Tone of coverage across the three media platforms (January)

Tone Newspaper (n=97) Television (n=196) Radio (n=215)

Negative 0.0 4.6 0.9 Neutral 96.9 93.4 97.2 Positive 3.1 2.0 1.9

Most election stories in the weeks preceding the elections, as in previous months, took on a neutral tone. Radio had the highest proportion of stories with a neutral tone, while newspapers had the highest share of stories with a positive tone. Television had the highest proportion of stories with a negative tone. UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 33

TABLE 14B: Tone of newspaper coverage of presidential candidates (January)

Candidate Negative (%) Neutral (%) Positive (%)

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 0.0 93.8 6.3 Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu 0.0 96.7 3.3 Patrick Oboi Amuriat 0.0 100.0 0.0 Mugisha Muntu 0.0 100.0 0.0 Norbert Mao 0.0 100.0 0.0 Nancy Kalembe 0.0 100.0 0.0 Joseph Kabuleta 0.0 100.0 0.0 John Katumba 0.0 100.0 0.0 Willy Mayambala 0.0 100.0 0.0 Henry Tumukunde 0.0 100.0 0.0 Fred Mwesigye 0.0 100.0 0.0

Museveni received the highest share of stories with a positive tone (6.3%) followed by Kyagulanyi (3.3%).

TABLE 14C: Tone of television coverage of presidential candidates (January)

Candidate Negative (%) Neutral (%) Positive (%)

Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu 0.0 98.2 1.8 Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 0.0 94.2 5.8 Patrick Oboi Amuriat 18.4 81.6 0.0 Mugisha Muntu 0.0 100.0 0.0 Norbert Mao 0.0 100.0 0.0 Henry Tumukunde 0.0 100.0 0.0 Nancy Kalembe 0.0 100.0 0.0 John Katumba 0.0 100.0 0.0 Joseph Kabuleta 0.0 100.0 0.0 Fred Mwesigye 0.0 100.0 0.0 Willy Mayambala 0.0 100.0 0.0

On television, Museveni received the highest proportion of stories with a positive tone (5.8%) while Amuriat attracted an unusually high share of stories with a negative tone (18.4%). The negative stories about Amuriat were related to his arrests and run-ins with the police. 34 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

TABLE 14D: Tone of radio coverage of presidential candidates (January)

Candidate Negative (%) Neutral (%) Positive (%)

Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu 0.0 100.0 0.0 Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 4.3 89.4 6.4 Patrick Oboi Amuriat 0.0 100.0 0.0 Mugisha Muntu 0.0 100.0 0.0 Norbert Mao 0.0 100.0 0.0 Henry Tumukunde 0.0 100.0 0.0 Nancy Kalembe 0.0 100.0 0.0 John Katumba 0.0 90.0 10.0 Willy Mayambala 0.0 100.0 0.0 Fred Mwesigye 0.0 100.0 0.0 Joseph Kabuleta 0.0 100.0 0.0

On radio, John Katumba received the highest proportion of stories with a positive tone (10%), followed by Museveni (6.4%). But the incumbent also received the highest share of radio stories with a negative tone.

Use of right of reply

TABLE 15A: Use of the right of reply across media platforms (January)

Right of reply Newspaper (n=26) TV (n=19) Radio (n=40)

No 69.2 89.5 87.5 Yes 30.8 10.5 12.5

The use of the right of reply was assessed only on stories that contained attacks on presidential candidates by their opponents or other political actors. Newspapers registered an increase in the proportion of stories where candidates who were attacked were given the right of reply from 22.1% in December to 30.8% in January. But overall, across all the platforms monitored, a majority of stories where candidates were attacked did not offer those on the receiving end an opportunity to respond. The problem was more pronounced on television and radio. UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 35

TABLE 15B: Right of reply by publication (January)

Publication No Yes

Bukedde (n=14) 57.1 42.9 Daily Monitor (n=4) 75.0 25.0 New Vision (n=8) 87.5 12.5

Among the dailies, Bukedde once again carried the highest proportion of stories where the right of reply was respected, while New Vision maintained the worst performance on this score.

TABLE 15C: Right of reply by TV station (January)

TV station No Yes

Baba TV (n=2) 100.0 0.0 Bukedde (n=2) 100.0 0.0 NTV (n=15) 86.7 13.3 NBS TV - - TV West - - UBC TV - - 36 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

On television, NTV had the highest proportion of stories in which the right of reply was offered (13.3%). Baba TV and Bukedde TV did not offer the candidates who were attacked the right of reply in the two attack stories each of the stations carried in the two weeks before the elections.

Event-vs issue-based reporting

TABLE 16A: Frequency of event- vs issue-based reporting (January)

Event-vs issue-based reporting Newspaper (n=331) TV (n=563) Radio (n=1,020)

Event-based 84.9 95.6 98.5 Issue-based 15.1 4.4 1.5

Radio (n=1,020)

Newspapers, television and radio all relied heavily on event-driven reporting at the expense of issue- based coverage. Once again, the problem was more pronounced on radio, where only one out of every 100 stories was issue-based.

TABLE 16B: Frequency of event- vs issue-based reporting by publication (January)

Publication Event-based Issue-based

New Vision (n=134) 85.1 14.9 Bukedde (n=115) 96.5 3.5 Daily Monitor (n=78) 69.2 30.8 The Observer (n=2) 50.0 50.0 The Independent (n=2) 50.0 50.0 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 37

As in December, The Independent and The Observer had the highest proportion of issued-based stories in January. Among the dailies, Daily Monitor had the highest share of issue-based stories, while Bukedde had the highest proportion of event-based stories.

Trend in event-vs issue-based reporting in newspapers

TABLE 16C: Frequency of event-vs issue-based reporting by TV station (January)

TV station Event-based Issue-based

Baba TV (n=89) 100.0 0.0 Bukedde (n=110) 100.0 0.0 NBS (n=130) 88.5 11.5 NTV (n=127) 93.7 6.3 TV West (n=56) 100.0 0.0 UBC (n=51) 96.1 3.9

Three of the television stations monitored, namely Bata TV, Bukedde TV and TV West, did not have any issue-based stories. Of the other three, UBC had the lowest proportion of issue-based stories while NBS had the highest. 38 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

Trend in event-issued based reporting in TV coverage

Trend in event-issued based reporting in radio coverage UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 39

Origin of election stories

TABLE 17A: Newspaper story origin

October November December January

Origin – Newspaper Freq % Freq % Freq % Freq %

Party activity 141 35.3 68 9.3 46 7.3 16 4.8 Electoral Commission activity 88 22.1 79 10.8 32 5.1 30 9.1 News conference 57 14.3 69 9.5 44 7 48 14.5 Independent reporting, 41 10.3 77 10.5 98 15.6 53 16.0 research or investigation by the journalist/outlet Newsworthy occurrence 17 4.3 76 10.4 55 8.7 32 9.7 Document e.g. report, study/ 11 2.8 19 2.6 15 2.4 4 1.2 research NGO/civil society activity 7 1.8 10 1.4 13 2.1 5 1.5 Parliament or legislative process 6 1.5 1 0.1 0 0 - - Government activity or 6 1.5 8 1.1 9 1.4 21 6.3 governance process Court or judicial process 6 1.5 19 2.6 19 3 12 3.6 Campaign rally/event 3 0.8 282 38.6 277 44 82 24.8 Social media (Twitter, 3 0.8 3 0.4 3 0.5 1 0.3 Facebook, etc) News release 3 0.8 3 0.4 7 1.1 4 1.2 Story from local media/agency 2 0.5 2 0.3 1 0.2 - - Expert/Specialist 2 0.5 3 0.4 0 0 - - Other 6 1.5 11 1.5 11 1.7 23 6.9 Total 399 100 730 100 630 100 331 100.0

Campaign rallies remained the biggest source of newspaper election stories in the two weeks before the polls. They accounted for 24.8% of coverage, while the share of stories from news conferences doubled to 14.5% from 7% in December. Although the proportion of stories from independent reporting by journalists grew slightly, overall most election stories originated from events by the candidates and other official players, including political party, Electoral Commission and other government officials. 40 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

TABLE 17B: Television story origin

October November December January

Origin – TV Freq % Freq % Freq % Freq %

Campaign rally/event 15 2.2 653 46.1 647 56.7 153 27.2 News conference 127 18.3 211 14.9 98 8.6 127 22.6 Newsworthy occurrence 42 6 138 9.8 99 8.7 59 10.5 Electoral Commission activity 189 27.2 135 9.5 61 5.3 65 11.5 Party activity 219 31.5 108 7.6 82 7.2 37 6.6 Independent reporting, 61 8.8 75 5.3 64 5.6 23 4.1 research or investigation by the journalist/outlet Court or judicial process 6 0.9 17 1.2 19 1.7 21 3.7 NGO/civil society activity 8 1.2 16 1.1 22 1.9 22 3.9 Government activity or 5 0.7 14 1 13 1.1 9 1.6 governance process Expert/Specialist 1 0.1 7 0.5 10 0.9 2 0.4 Document e.g. report, study/ 1 0.1 6 0.4 3 0.3 4 0.7 research Story from local media/agency - - 3 0.2 - - Parliament or legislative 14 2 2 0.1 3 0.3 - - process News release 1 0.1 1 0.1 1 0.1 7 1.2 Social media (Twitter, - - 1 0.1 1 0.1 1 0.2 Facebook, etc) Other 6 0.9 28 2 19 1.7 33 5.9 Total 695 100 1415 100 1142 100 563 100.0

Television relied a lot more on campaign rallies and official events than newspapers. Campaign rallies accounted for 27% of television stories, followed closely by news conferences (22.6%), and Electoral Commission activities (11.5%). The share of stories from independent reporting was a lot less on television. UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 41

TABLE 17C: Radio story origin

October November December January

Origin - Radio Freq % Freq % Freq % Freq %

Campaign rally/event 10 0.9 912 38 661 46.3 160 15.7 News conference 165 15.7 387 16.1 173 12.1 273 26.8 Newsworthy occurrence 73 6.9 343 14.3 182 12.8 188 18.4 Electoral Commission activity 319 30.3 285 11.9 101 7.1 132 12.9 Party activity 338 32.1 171 7.1 99 6.9 45 4.4 Court or judicial process 29 2.8 67 2.8 46 3.2 45 4.4 NGO/civil society activity 26 2.5 61 2.5 45 3.2 47 4.6 Government activity or 33 3.1 38 1.6 14 1 22 2.2 governance process Independent reporting, 7 0.7 35 1.5 21 1.5 17 1.7 research or investigation by the journalist/outlet Social media (Twitter, 3 0.3 18 0.7 3 0.2 4 0.4 Facebook, etc) Story from local media/agency 3 0.3 15 0.6 7 0.5 13 1.3 Document e.g. report, study/ 4 0.4 11 0.5 15 1.1 13 1.3 research Parliament or legislative 29 2.8 8 0.3 2 0.1 process News release 2 0.2 8 0.3 18 1.3 17 1.7 Expert/Specialist 1 0.1 7 0.3 3 0.2 2 0.2 Other 12 1.1 37 1.5 37 2.6 42 4.1 Total 1054 100 2403 100 1427 100 1020 100.0

News conferences were the biggest sources of election stories for the radio stations monitored, accounting for 26.8% of their coverage. Other newsworthy occurrences came second followed by campaign rallies, and Electoral Commission activities. There were very few radio stories from independent reporting. 42 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

Reporting format of election stories

TABLE 18A: Reporting formats across the three media platforms (January)

Reporting format Newspaper (n=331) TV (n=563) Radio (n=1,020)

Conventional 85.5 96.1 98.9 Enterprise and interpretive 14.5 3.9 1.1 Investigative 0.0 0.0 0.0

Once again, there was no investigative election reporting across all three media platforms monitored. And the proportion of enterprise and interpretive stories dropped across all the three. Radio and television, which more people rely on for information, performed worse on this score, largely relaying conventional hard news reports.

Radio (n=1,020) UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 43

Trend in reporting formats in newspaper coverage

Trend in reporting formats in television coverage 44 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

Trend in reporting formats in radio coverage

TABLE 18B: Reporting format in newspapers by publication (January)

Publication Conventional Enterprise and interpretive

New Vision (n=134) 86.6 13.4 Bukedde (n=115) 96.5 3.5 Daily Monitor (n=78) 69.2 30.8 The Observer (n=2) 50.0 50.0 The Independent (n=2) 50.0 50.0

The Independent and The Observer had the highest proportion of stories based on the enterprise- interpretive format although their total number of stories was much lower. Among the dailies, Daily Monitor had the highest share of enterprise-interpretive stories (30.8%), while Bukedde had the lowest (3.5%). UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 45

TABLE 18C: Reporting format by TV station (January)

Publication Conventional Enterprise and interpretive

Baba TV (n=89) 100.0 0.0 Bukedde (n=110) 100.0 0.0 NBS (n=130) 88.5 11.5 NTV (n=127) 96.1 3.9 TV West (n=56) 100.0 0.0 UBC (n=51) 96.1 3.9

On television, NBS had the highest share of stories employing the enterprise-interpretive format (11.5%). Three stations, Baba TV, Bukedde TV, and TV West, did not carry any enterprise-interpretive stories. Overall, TV performed worse than newspapers on this measure of quality.

Number of sources in election stories

TABLE 19A: Number of sources per story across the three media platforms (January)

Number of sources Newspaper (n=331) TV (n=563) Radio (n=1,020)

No source 4.8 0.7 8.8 1 source 27.2 39.4 54.3 2 sources 22.1 15.3 20.7 3 sources 14.2 15.3 9.6 4 sources 11.5 12.1 4.0 5 or more sources 20.2 17.2 2.5

The problem of single-sourcing remained. It was more pronounced on radio where more than half of the stories on the stations monitored had only one source and another 8.8% had no source. Newspapers did much better, although nearly a third of the stories had only one source or none. The proportion of newspaper stories with three or more sources was 45.9%, while television stories with multiple sources increased slightly to 44.6%.

TABLE 19B: Trend in number of sources in newspaper coverage

Number of sources per story October (%) November (%) December (%) January (%)

No source 7.3 6.7 5.4 4.8 1 source 24.3 31 29.4 27.2 2 sources 25.6 20.4 20.8 22.1 3 sources 14.8 12.9 14.1 14.2 4 sources 9.3 10.7 11.4 11.5 5 or more sources 18.8 18.4 18.9 20.2 46 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

TABLE 19C: Trend in number of sources in TV coverage

Number of sources per story October (%) November (%) December (%) January (%)

No source 1.2 3.7 2.6 0.7 1 source 24.2 32.5 34.6 39.4 2 sources 17.3 25 22.1 15.3 3 sources 18.4 17.2 16.9 15.3 4 sources 14.4 10.3 9 12.1 5 or more sources 24.6 11.3 14.8 17.2

TABLE 19D: Trend in number of sources in radio coverage

Number of sources per story October (%) November (%) December (%) January (%)

No source 12.1 12.2 12.5 8.8 1 source 54.8 54.1 56.4 54.3 2 sources 18.9 19.3 20 20.7 3 sources 6.7 7.8 7.2 9.6 4 sources 4.2 4.2 2.6 4.0 5 or more sources 3.2 2.5 1.2 2.5

TABLE 19E: Number of sources by publication (January)

Number of sources Bukedde Daily Monitor New Vision The Independent The Observer per story (n=115) (n=78) (n=134) (n=2) (n=2)

No source 3.5 7.7 4.5 0.0 0.0 1 source 29.6 21.8 28.4 50.0 0.0 2 sources 24.3 20.5 20.9 0.0 50.0 3 sources 16.5 12.8 13.4 0.0 0.0 4 sources 8.7 10.3 14.9 0.0 0.0 5 or more sources 17.4 26.9 17.9 50.0 50.0

Among the daily newspapers, Daily Monitor once again had the highest proportion of stories with three or more sources (50%), while Bukedde had the highest share of stories with one or no source (34.1%). This represented a significant improvement from 46.6% in December. UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 47

TABLE 19F: Number of sources by TV station (January)

Number of sources Baba TV Bukedde NBS NTV TV West UBC per story (n=89) (n=110) (n=130) (n=127) (n=56) (n=51)

No source 0.0 0.0 1.5 1.6 0.0 0.0 1 source 40.4 19.1 46.9 43.3 33.9 58.8 2 sources 15.7 18.2 13.1 16.5 8.9 17.6 3 sources 14.6 10.9 19.2 19.7 14.3 5.9 4 sources 11.2 16.4 10.8 9.4 12.5 13.7 5 or more sources 18.0 35.5 8.5 9.4 30.4 3.9

Among the television stations monitored, Bukedde TV had the highest proportion of stories with three or more sources (62.8%). NBS TV and NTV were tied at 38.5%. UBC once again had the highest proportion of stories with one or no source (58.8%), followed by NBS TV (48.4%). Overall, the problem of single sourcing was more pronounced on television than in newspapers.

Type of sources in election stories

TABLE 20A: Human sources in newspaper coverage (January)

Sources – Newspaper Frequency Percent

Ordinary person 212 21.5 Parliamentary candidate 175 17.7 Presidential candidate 114 11.6 Party official 82 8.3 Religious representative 69 7.0 Local govt representative 43 4.4 Electoral Commission official 40 4.1 Police representative 37 3.7 Candidates’ agent 32 3.2 Military/security representative 28 2.8 NGO/CSO official 24 2.4 Expert 19 1.9 Minister 18 1.8 Judicial personnel 15 1.5 Member of Parliament 15 1.5 Central government representative 11 1.1 48 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

Sources – Newspaper Frequency Percent

President 11 1.1 Resident District Commissioner 10 1.0 Business representative 8 0.8 Election observer 7 0.7 Diplomatic representative 6 0.6 Cultural representative 5 0.5 Speaker of Parliament 1 0.1 Prison representative 1 0.1 Other 4 0.4 Total 987 100.0

Ordinary people continued to top the list of sources quoted in newspaper election stories, but taken together presidential and parliamentary candidates as well as political party officials remained the most frequently cited sources, accounting for 37.6% of all human sources. However, this was a drop of nearly 10 percentage points from the December high of 47% for the candidates and party officials. UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 49

TABLE 20B: Trend in human sources in newspaper coverage

October November December January

Sources – Newspaper Freq % Freq % Freq % Freq %

Ordinary person 110 9.9 459 23 434 23.9 212 21.5 Presidential candidate 55 4.9 407 20.4 395 21.7 114 11.6 Party official 234 21 225 11.3 215 11.8 82 8.3 Parliamentary candidate 358 32.1 205 10.3 245 13.5 175 17.7 Police 37 3.3 103 5.2 61 3.4 37 3.7 Electoral Commission official 60 5.4 83 4.2 45 2.5 40 4.1 Expert 44 3.9 74 3.7 37 2 19 1.9 NGO/CSO official 26 2.3 54 2.7 37 2 24 2.4 Minister 17 1.5 50 2.5 62 3.4 18 1.8 Central government official 28 2.5 44 2.2 36 2 11 1.1 Religious representative 16 1.4 44 2.2 51 2.8 69 7.0 Local government official 26 2.3 43 2.2 53 2.9 43 4.4 Member of Parliament 16 1.4 43 2.2 29 1.6 15 1.5 Candidates agent 21 1.9 42 2.1 18 1 32 3.2 Business representative 5 0.4 33 1.7 6 0.3 8 0.8 Resident District Commissioner 10 0.9 14 0.7 7 0.4 10 1.0 Judicial personnel 6 0.5 13 0.7 16 0.9 15 1.5 Military/security 7 0.6 11 0.6 19 1 28 2.8 Diplomatic representative 9 0.8 10 0.5 12 0.7 6 0.6 Cultural representative 7 0.6 9 0.5 9 0.5 5 0.5 Election observer 0 0 4 0.2 1 0.1 7 0.7 International NGO representative 2 0.2 4 0.2 7 0.4 0 0.0 Speaker of Parliament 8 0.7 3 0.2 2 0.1 1 0.1 President 2 0.2 1 0.1 13 0.7 11 1.1 Prison representative ------1 0.1 Other 10 0.9 17 0.9 8 0.4 4 0.4 Total 1,114 100 1995 100 1,818 100 987 100.0

The top four sources for television stories on the stations monitored were ordinary people, party officials, presidential and parliamentary candidates (in that order). Television paid less attention to parliamentary candidates than newspapers. Again, taken together the candidates and party officials accounted for the biggest proportion of television sources (38.8%). (See Table 20c). 50 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

TABLE 20C: Human sources in television coverage (January)

Human source – TV Frequency Percent

Ordinary person 333 21.6 Party official 225 14.6 Presidential candidate 221 14.4 Parliamentary candidate 151 9.8 Religious representative 102 6.6 Electoral Commission official 99 6.4 Police representative 89 5.8 NGO/CSO official 51 3.3 Expert 41 2.7 Local govt representative 38 2.5 Minister 34 2.2 Central government representative 25 1.6 Resident District Commissioner 21 1.4 Military/security representative 18 1.2 Candidates agent 16 1.0 Judicial personnel 14 0.9 Member of Parliament 13 0.8 Cultural representative 11 0.7 Business representative 10 0.6 Prison representative 7 0.5 President 5 0.3 Diplomatic representative 3 0.2 Election observer 3 0.2 Speaker of Parliament 2 0.1 Other 7 0.5 Total 1539 100.0 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 51

TABLE 20D: Trend in human sources in television coverage

October November December January

Sources - TV Freq % Freq % Freq % Freq %

Presidential candidate 94 4 812 23.4 647 22.1 221 14.4 Ordinary person 267 11.4 634 18.3 616 21.1 333 21.6 Party official 487 20.7 534 15.4 471 16.1 225 14.6 Parliamentary candidate 908 38.7 303 8.7 330 11.3 151 9.8 Police representative 56 2.4 184 5.3 97 3.3 89 5.8 Electoral Commission official 152 6.5 161 4.6 89 3 99 6.4 Minister 26 1.1 139 4 76 2.6 34 2.2 Expert 78 3.3 105 3 32 1.1 41 2.7 Member of Parliament 73 3.1 103 3 83 2.8 13 0.8 Religious representative 15 0.6 97 2.8 117 4 102 6.6 NGO/CSO official 42 1.8 94 2.7 59 2 51 3.3 Candidates agent 32 1.4 70 2 100 3.4 16 1.0 Local government official 16 0.7 49 1.4 67 2.3 38 2.5 Central government official 19 0.8 34 1 23 0.8 25 1.6 Resident District Commissioner 7 0.3 31 0.9 25 0.9 21 1.4 Cultural representative 5 0.2 28 0.8 14 0.5 11 0.7 Business representative 6 0.3 19 0.5 7 0.2 10 0.6 Military/security representative 5 0.2 19 0.5 20 0.7 18 1.2 Judicial personnel 14 0.6 14 0.4 12 0.4 14 0.9 President - - 6 0.2 3 0.1 5 0.3 Speaker of Parliament 16 0.7 5 0.1 11 0.4 2 0.1 International NGO representative 1 0 4 0.1 2 0.1 - - Diplomatic representative 11 0.5 4 0.1 4 0.1 3 0.2 Election observer 5 0.2 3 0.1 5 0.2 3 0.2 Prison representative - - 2 0.1 1 0 7 0.5 Other 12 0.5 12 0.3 11 0.4 7 0.5 Total 2347 100 3466 100 2922 100 1539 100.0

As in previous months, radio did not rely as much on ordinary people as sources as the newspapers and television. Electoral Commission officials constituted the highest share of sources for election stories on radio, followed closely by parliamentary candidates, party officials, and presidential candidates. (See tables 20e and 20f). 52 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

TABLE 20E: Human sources in radio coverage (January)

Human sources – Radio Frequency Percent

Electoral Commission official 204 12.8 Parliamentary candidate 201 12.6 Party official 187 11.8 Presidential candidate 183 11.5 Ordinary person 152 9.6 Religious representative 132 8.3 Police representative 131 8.2 NGO/CSO official 70 4.4 Local govt representative 50 3.1 Military/security representative 40 2.5 Minister 36 2.3 Central government representative 29 1.8 Resident District Commissioner 25 1.6 Judicial personnel 24 1.5 Member of Parliament 18 1.1 Candidates agent 17 1.1 Expert 15 0.9 President 14 0.9 Cultural representative 14 0.9 Diplomatic representative 13 0.8 Election observer 13 0.8 Business representative 11 0.7 International NGO representative 4 0.3 Prison representative 1 0.1 Other 5 0.3 Total 1589 100.0 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 53

TABLE 20F: Trend in human sources in radio coverage

October November December January

Sources – Radio Freq % Freq % Freq % Freq %

Presidential candidate 77 4.9 1139 32.1 568 29.5 183 11.5 Party official 326 20.6 448 12.6 260 13.5 187 11.8 Police representative 92 5.8 354 10 123 6.4 131 8.2 Ordinary person 64 4 307 8.7 185 9.6 152 9.6 Parliamentary candidate 544 34.4 275 7.8 188 9.8 201 12.6 Electoral Commission official 230 14.5 208 5.9 112 5.8 204 12.8 Religious representative 27 1.7 130 3.7 100 5.2 132 8.3 NGO/CSO official 35 2.2 99 2.8 63 3.3 70 4.4 Local government official 23 1.5 89 2.5 41 2.1 50 3.1 Expert 6 0.4 83 2.3 23 1.2 15 0.9 Minister 18 1.1 66 1.9 27 1.4 36 2.3 Candidates agent 6 0.4 48 1.4 34 1.8 17 1.1 Cultural representative 10 0.6 46 1.3 14 0.7 14 0.9 Central government official 15 0.9 46 1.3 41 2.1 29 1.8 Member of Parliament 25 1.6 44 1.2 31 1.6 18 1.1 Resident District 6 0.4 41 1.2 20 1 25 1.6 Commissioner Judicial personnel 15 0.9 28 0.8 30 1.6 24 1.5 Military/security 7 0.4 22 0.6 23 1.2 40 2.5 representative Business representative 2 0.1 16 0.5 3 0.2 11 0.7 Diplomatic representative 8 0.5 11 0.3 5 0.3 13 0.8 Speaker of Parliament 32 2 10 0.3 4 0.2 - - Election observer 2 0.1 7 0.2 7 0.4 13 0.8 International NGO 3 0.2 5 0.1 4 0.2 4 0.3 representative President 0 0 2 0.1 9 0.5 14 0.9 Prison representative ------1 0.1 Other 9 0.6 21 0.6 10 0.5 5 0.3 Total 1582 100 3545 100 1925 100 1589 100.0 54 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

Gender of sources in election stories

TABLE 21A: Gender of sources across the three media platforms (January)

Gender of sources Newspaper (n=986) TV (n=1539) Radio (n=1589)

Female 18.7 19.2 15.8 Male 81.3 80.8 84.2

Men continued to dominate coverage across all the three media platforms monitored. Once again, radio performed the poorest on the gender score, although the proportion of women in election stories on radio increased slightly to 15.8% from 13.6% in December. Television also saw an increase in the proportion of women used as sources to 19.2% from 16.7% in December, while newspapers registered a drop to 18.7% from 20.6%.

TV (n=1,589) Radio (n=1,589) UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 55

Trend in gender of sources in newspaper stories

Trend in gender of sources in television stories 56 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

Trend in gender of sources in radio stories

TABLE 21B: Gender of newspaper sources by publication (January)

Gender of sources Female Male

New Vision (n=386) 18.1 81.9 Bukedde (n=315) 20.3 79.7 Daily Monitor (n=270) 18.1 81.9 The Observer (n=8) 0.0 100.0 The Independent (n=7) 14.3 85.7

Among the newspapers monitored, Bukedde had the highest proportion of female sources (20.3%). New Vision and Daily Monitor were tied in second place at 18.1%. The Observer had no female sources in the eight stories they carried in the two weeks of January ahead of the elections.

TABLE 21C: Gender of sources in TV coverage by station (January)

Publication Female Male

Baba TV (n=244) 18.4 81.6 Bukedde (n=435) 19.5 80.5 NBS (n=290) 16.9 83.1 NTV (n=289) 21.8 78.2 TV West (n=181) 19.9 80.1 UBC (n=100) 18.0 82.0 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 57

Among the television stations monitored, NTV had the highest share of female sources (21.9=8%), followed by TV West (19.9%) and Bukedde TV (19.5%). NBS continued having the lowest proportion of female sources.

Interrogation of claims by presidential candidates

TABLE 22A: Interrogation of claims and promises (January)

Interrogation of claims Newspaper (n=56) TV (n=60) Radio (n=68)

No 75 93.3 85.3 Yes 25 6.7 14.7

A vast majority of stories with claims and promises made by presidential candidates carried no scrutiny. Television performed the worst on this score, while newspapers did better, questioning claims or promises made by the candidates in a quarter of the election stories in the first two weeks of January. 58 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

Trend in interrogation of claims in newspaper stories

Trend in interrogation of claims in television stories UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 59

Trend in interrogation of claims in radio stories

TABLE 22B: Interrogation of claims in newspaper coverage by publication (January)

Publication No Yes

New Vision (n=26) 76.9 23.1 Bukedde (n=20) 80.0 20.0 Daily Monitor (n=10) 60.0 40.0

Among the dailies, Daily Monitor had the highest proportion of stories where candidate claims or promises were questioned (40%, an improvement from 37.5% in December). Bukedde also registered an improvement from 4.2% in December to 20% in January, while New Vision saw a drop to 23.1% from 33.3% in December.

TABLE 22C: Interrogation of claims in TV coverage by station (January)

Publication No Yes

Baba TV (n=1) 100.0 0.0 Bukedde (n=17) 100.0 0.0 NBS (n=8) 100.0 0.0 NTV (n=26) 96.2 3.8 TV West (n=3) 66.7 33.3 UBC (n=5) 60.0 40.0 60 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

Among the TV stations monitored, UBC TV had the highest share of stories where candidate claims or promises were interrogated (40%) followed by TV West (33.3%). Baba TV, Bukedde TV, and NBS TV did not subject to any scrutiny stories that contained candidate claims or promises.

Topics/Issues addressed in election stories

TABLE 23A: Topics in newspaper coverage

October November December January

Topic/Issue - Newspaper Freq % Freq % Freq % Freq %

Politics & power play 326 71 322 22.3 243 18.9 126 19.6 Justice, rights, law & - - 136 9.4 119 9.2 84 13.0 order Election violence 29 6.3 121 8.4 92 7.1 75 11.6 Health - - 114 7.9 121 9.4 34 5.3 Election management 74 16.1 104 7.2 83 6.4 64 9.9 Business, economics, - - 83 5.7 78 6.1 46 7.1 finance & trade Works & transport - - 75 5.2 95 7.4 34 5.3 Security & defence 1 0.2 72 5 51 4 14 2.2 Education - - 68 4.7 67 5.2 23 3.6 Agriculture - - 65 4.5 60 4.7 23 3.6 Election security 10 2.2 51 3.5 35 2.7 31 4.8 Labour & employment - - 39 2.7 54 4.2 20 3.1 Water & environment 2 0.4 34 2.4 27 2.1 11 1.7 Accountability 1 0.2 33 2.3 13 1 10 1.6 Land - - 31 2.1 41 3.2 10 1.6 Energy - - 19 1.3 24 1.9 5 0.8 Tourism - - 9 0.6 5 0.4 1 0.2 Election financing 12 2.6 8 0.6 12 0.9 4 0.6 Housing - - 7 0.5 5 0.4 - - Minerals - - 7 0.5 5 0.4 - - Oil & gas - - 7 0.5 4 0.3 2 0.3 Election observation 3 0.7 5 0.3 2 0.2 4 0.6 Local government/ - - 3 0.2 12 0.9 1 0.2 administration UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 61

October November December January

Topic/Issue - Newspaper Freq % Freq % Freq % Freq %

ICT - - 2 0.1 - - 5 0.8 Religion - - 2 0.1 1 0.1 - - Weather & climate - - 2 0.1 - - - - Foreign & international - - 2 0.1 5 0.4 1 0.2 affairs Natural disasters - - 2 0.1 5 0.4 - - Sports & recreation - - 2 0.1 8 0.6 1 0.2 Arts & culture - - 1 0.1 5 0.4 2 0.3 Other 1 0.2 18 1.2 15 1.2 13 2.0 Total 459 100 1,444 100 1287 100 644 100.0

To the very end, politics and power play dominated newspaper election coverage, with a share of 19.6% of the stories. The stories in this category include those that focused on electoral competition, power play and gamesmanship, as well as political party or candidate strategies. They excluded stories that focused on policy issues. The other top topics were justice, rights, law and order; election violence; election management; and business, economics, finance and trade.

TABLE 23B: Topics in TV coverage

October November December January

Topics/Issues – TV Freq % Freq % Freq % Freq %

Politics & power play 531 69.6 648 26.7 416 19.9 220 25.9 Election violence 42 5.5 303 12.5 173 8.3 81 9.6 Justice, rights, law & order - - 260 10.7 203 9.7 77 9.1 Election management 151 19.8 175 7.2 147 7 109 12.9 Health - - 159 6.5 147 7 61 7.2 Election security 16 2.1 139 5.7 84 4 76 9.0 Business, economics, - - 112 4.6 134 6.4 28 3.3 finance & trade Works & transport - - 110 4.5 147 7 35 4.1 Education - - 81 3.3 98 4.7 20 2.4 Security & defence - - 68 2.8 75 3.6 33 3.9 Labour & employment - - 68 2.8 63 3 16 1.9 Agriculture - - 64 2.6 132 6.3 29 3.4 62 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

October November December January

Topics/Issues – TV Freq % Freq % Freq % Freq %

Land - - 44 1.8 49 2.3 6 0.7 Energy 1 0.1 34 1.4 22 1.1 7 0.8 Water & environment - - 30 1.2 35 1.7 9 1.1 Accountability - - 21 0.9 23 1.1 4 0.5 Oil & gas - - 20 0.8 7 0.3 - - Election financing 14 1.8 19 0.8 20 1 1 0.1 Minerals - - 9 0.4 13 0.6 2 0.2 Election observation 8 1 7 0.3 - - 8 0.9 Sports & recreation - - 7 0.3 17 0.8 - - Tourism - - 7 0.3 10 0.5 - - Arts & culture - - 7 0.3 3 0.1 1 0.1 Housing - - 5 0.2 3 0.1 - - Natural disasters - - 4 0.2 17 0.8 1 0.1 Foreign & international - - 3 0.1 12 0.6 - - affairs Weather & climate - - 2 0.1 1 0 - - Local government/ - - 2 0.1 7 0.3 1 0.1 administration ICT - - 1 0 3 0.1 4 0.5 Religion - - - - 17 0.8 7 0.8 Other - - 21 0.9 16 0.8 12 1.5 Total 763 100 2430 100 2094 100 848 100.0

Politics and power play also dominated television coverage, taking a share of 25.9%. The other top topics included election management (12.9%), election violence (9.6%), justice, rights, law and order (9.1%), and election security (9%). UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 63

TABLE 23C: Topics in radio coverage

October November December January

Topics/issues - Radio Freq % Freq % Freq % Freq %

Politics & power play 636 56.9 1000 28.3 582 29.2 286 20.4 Justice, rights, law & order 15 1.3 467 13.2 247 12.4 211 15.0 Election violence 84 7.5 448 12.7 227 11.4 174 12.4 Election management 318 28.4 332 9.4 165 8.3 264 18.8 Election security 29 2.6 298 8.4 75 3.8 153 10.9 Health 2 0.2 169 4.8 103 5.2 43 3.1 Business, economics, finance - - 135 3.8 86 4.3 34 2.4 & trade Security & defence 1 0.1 103 2.9 62 3.1 38 2.7 Education 1 0.1 97 2.7 48 2.4 20 1.4 Works & transport 1 0.1 85 2.4 89 4.5 15 1.1 Agriculture 2 0.2 71 2 64 3.2 21 1.5 Land 1 0.1 50 1.4 38 1.9 12 0.9 Labour & employment - - 48 1.4 36 1.8 13 0.9 Water & environment - - 35 1 16 0.8 8 0.6 Election financing 23 2.1 29 0.8 16 0.8 13 0.9 Accountability 1 0.1 24 0.7 28 1.4 9 0.6 Minerals - - 20 0.6 8 0.4 - - Energy - - 17 0.5 12 0.6 4 0.3 Tourism - - 15 0.4 8 0.4 1 0.1 Oil & gas - - 15 0.4 2 0.1 2 0.1 Housing - - 8 0.2 8 0.4 - - Election observation 4 0.4 7 0.2 9 0.5 44 3.1 Foreign & international affairs - - 7 0.2 2 0.1 1 0.1 Arts & culture - - 6 0.2 6 0.3 2 0.1 Sports & recreation - - 4 0.1 15 0.8 3 0.2 ICT - - 4 0.1 1 0.1 14 1.0 Local government/ - - 4 0.1 3 0.2 2 0.1 administration Religion - - 3 0.1 9 0.5 - - Weather & climate - - 2 0.1 - - - - 64 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

October November December January

Topics/issues - Radio Freq % Freq % Freq % Freq %

Natural disasters - - 1 0 4 0.2 - - Other - - 32 0.9 23 1.2 17 1.2 Total 1118 100 3536 100 1992 100 1404 100.0

The same topics that dominated television coverage also came on top on radio. Politics and power play led with 20.4%, followed by election management (18.8%), justice, rights, law and order (15%) election violence (12.4%), and election security (10.9%). UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 65

EXPLAINING THE COVERAGE

Journalists, journalism educators, and politicians lauded the media for covering the election campaigns intensively in an unusual and difficult electoral period. Most established media houses received plaudits for covering all the candidates, particularly those standing on political party tickets, dedicating a substantial amount of time and space to the campaigns as election day— 14 January 2021— drew closer, and introducing new features to explain the issues.

All the interviewees we spoke to also pointed out a number of flaws in the coverage, including the inadequate scrutiny of candidate or party manifestos as well as claims or promises made at campaign rallies, and the disproportionate attention to events and the drama of the campaigns. Insufficient use of background and context, the absence of investigative reporting, and the disproportionate attention paid to Museveni, Kyagulanyi, and Amuriat were some of the other shortcomings identified.

Reporters and editors cited several challenges that affected the coverage of the elections, including the following: ll Restrictions on movement and lack of access to sources due to Covid-19 response measures. ll Attacks on journalists by police and security forces. ll Cutbacks in investment in journalism due to the effects of the pandemic on the media business. ll Not having enough ‘boots on the ground’ (reporters). ll Inexperienced reporters (and sometimes editors) and the associated low institutional memory in many newsrooms. ll Ill-prepared journalists, lack of skills, knowledge or poor attitude. ll Newsroom cultures that don’t privilege depth, context, and explanation. ll Inadequate newsroom planning for election coverage. ll Bribery of journalists. ll Intimidation from regulators, government officials, and in some cases opposition supporters. ll Self-censorship, particularly from fear of attracting the wrath of government officials and the political elite. ll Commercial pressures on media houses. ll Media owners who were either only looking at the bottom line or could not allow opposition candidates on their radio stations. ll The move by the Media Council to accredit journalists covering the elections. 66 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

On violence and the drama of the campaigns vs issues and party platforms

“Many of the radio stations are purely driven by commercial motives, hence they do not have time for context and background. And, in some cases, people who have powers in programming are not professionals/trained media persons or journalists, and therefore pay less attention to critical issues. This is common [at] the upcountry radio stations. —Reporter, Arua One

“There are threats. Here when you write an issue-based story, you are summoned by the DISO, DPC, etc. The journalists want to do stories that do not put them in conflict with officials. There are also constraints with resources. To follow the issues, you need to go to the local people, but reporters cannot reach their sources because they are not facilitated. They would rather go with what is easy to get. They are also poorly paid, so the event stories have some transport refund for reporters to survive on.” — Journalist, Mighty Fire FM, Kitgum

On lack of background and context

“It comes back to how journalists are trained. Most journalists think the violence is the news. Most of them are not interested in the issues. They are after the drama. You can sometimes hear them here in Fort Portal calling police: ‘This opposition candidate is here campaigning; when are you coming to take some action and tear gas?’ Then there is the issue of lack of research skills. Journalists will not analyse; they will not even request an expert to analyse issues in manifestos. Many have not trained in journalism, but only metamorphosed from DJs or presenters to field reporters.” —Reporter, KRC FM, Fort Portal

“What explains the lack of context and background is the speed and shifting ground below our reporters. In the past you had old men addressing one rally a day, now you have a candidate in three districts with different issues a day. It makes the story harder to tell, and also the sideshows that come as you are approaching press time mean that you have a development replacing the issues. And the issues would then go into day two, and that is what we have been doing at NTV. The events make the news and our day-two reporters in Kampala pick up on that and then help the public make sense of the issues.” —Journalist, NTV UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 67

On the dominance of event-based reporting

“It comes back to the quality of the audience. For the last 35 years, the government has not made people patriotic enough to get interested in issues. People are reduced to begging, waiting for hand-outs. This is not an issue-based voting population. Even when you try to host an intellectual issue-based programme on radio, you will get feedback that you do not have audience for that type of content. People think about daily bread.” —Journalist, Peak FM, Kabale

“The working conditions do not give the media time to analyse and engage in issues. This election has been marked by violence, gunshots, tear gas. You send whatever information you have as quickly as you can.” —Journalist, Centenary FM, Masaka.

On lack of investigative election reporting

“Media houses do not support and invest in issue based/investigative stories. Many reporters/journalists are also still failing to realise the importance of exceptional stories, which are mostly issue-based. Sometimes it is lack of motivation, and sometimes it is the desire for money, brown envelopes during the workshops, and I think this all zeroes down to lack of professionalism.” —Journalist, Arua One FM

“Newsrooms fear to engage in investigations because of the charged atmosphere related to elections and the money that comes with buying airtime. However, there are good grounds for venturing in to investigations because there is always corruption and quick money-making schemes to expose.” —John Baptist Wasswa, media trainer

On insufficient interrogation of candidate claims and promises

“I would imagine it is about accessing the people making the claims. But then again, I believe this is done by reporters following the particular candidates. We have candidates who come for a rally and do not have time to give an interview. We have had challenges getting to candidates or representatives of their parties. I think it is about access to the candidates. I have seen Norbert Mao having press conferences after a rally. It would be good if this is made a standard for all candidates, so that media people are able to ask these questions.” —Journalist, Etoil A Karamoja 68 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

“At Vision Group, we took a position that if you are to do it, you must do it for every candidate. Some things politicians say are unverifiable. They make outrageous remarks, accusations and utterances. If you will not verify and interrogate claims by, say candidate Yoweri Museveni, what moral authority do you have to interrogate claims by his challengers? We are a public media and there is the mandatory expectation to treat candidates equally. Secondly, different media have their agendas and preferred positions. They may not want to go down that route. Thirdly, the audience is very polarized — you do not want to antagonize sections of the audience by unnecessarily interrogating things their preferred candidate utters.” —Editor, Vision Group

“At URN we set up a Check Desk, with donor support, for this election season to have people who verify, question, interrogate and research. We do not want candidates to get away with any loose talk. This desk checks everything and we give our audiences perfect stuff.” —Editor, Uganda Radio Network

“The lack of interrogation for the president, for example, can be attributed to self- censorship and the influence of UCC and the president’s handlers in this whole process. For example, we as NTV had bytes of him making three differing claims on wetland occupation and the killing of unarmed citizens. None made it to a story, and even when used on social media, there were warnings from his handlers. Then for other candidates, many had not competed in an election, and few had public records on which their promises could be measured. This coupled with partisan analysts meant that we had nowhere to run if we wanted to hold candidates accountable. This can also be blamed on the president’s longevity in power, which means he is the only one with a recognisable public service record off which he could be held accountable.” —Journalist, NTV

On pressure from the State

“We have faced enormous pressure from State operatives, from the government. I don’t know whether we have ever faced this kind of pressure. There has been so much pressure from the State to try and black out the other side especially Bobi Wine … In one of the meetings we held they even came up with records that ‘can you imagine you gave Bobi Wine 10 minutes and you gave Museveni 6 minutes’. They had come up with that kind of detail. So there has been a lot of pressure.” —TV journalist UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 69

On the effects of Covid-19

“The company decided on us working in shifts, and as a result we could not have adequate reporters to rely on. In a day, we could have only 3-4 reporters, who could not do much in terms of variety of stories. Even editors were affected. We are only two and at some point, one editor had to work for two weeks while the other was off, then the one who worked for two weeks also goes home for two weeks, so there was no support and this affected the interaction, discussion of ideas, among others.” —Editor, Arua One

“Covid-19 affected the radio station especially when it came to covering President Yoweri Museveni. Every journalist wishing to cover him had to undergo a Covid-19 test. Many journalists feared to take the test, and so they could not go to his campaign sites. Journalists also feared to travel to different districts especially in the latter part of the campaigns as the rate of Covid-19 infections rose. Management only bought sanitisers and hand-washing sets but journalists were expected to provide for their own protective gear. The staff were also psychologically affected when the station’s board chairperson, and Woman MP for Rakai, her husband and sister-in-law all died from Covid-19--related complications within one month. It complicated the work of journalism that thrives on meeting people.” —Journalist, Centenary FM, Masaka

On the effects of physical attacks on journalists

“Most Journalists now dodge assignments especially if they anticipate chaos. It has led to unequal coverage of candidates, causing limited political content that is aired out to the audience.” —Journalist, Kyoga Veritas

“Yes, this brutality has affected our operations. Once our reporter was following an opposition candidate and some people in the candidate’s entourage mistook him for a notorious police informer. Even in other places, our journalists are at risk. Police violence scares people. The problem is that police do not want to have their misbehaviour documented. Now many of our photographers do not want to cover riots. It is a big risk to equipment and to themselves.” —Editor, Vision Group

“Initially campaigns went on well but the situation has changed dramatically in the last leg of the campaigns. The police are ruder, more violent. One of our journalists 70 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

was beaten for passing near and taking photographs of a minister’s house. You have candidates who conspire with police to intimidate journalists.” —Journalist, Peak FM, Kabale

“It is intimidation. There has been an increase in attacks on journalists so those that haven’t yet gone on the campaign trail now fear going. So you will hear people say that they wouldn’t want to cover Kyagulanyi because anytime they will be met with tear gas or physically harmed. There is tension in the way we relate with security. For example, if you are coming from work past curfew hours and you identify as a journalist, in most cases you will be met with hostility. The state also labelled journalists as activists, especially those covering the opposition. That affects their credibility and the way they do their work.” —Journalist, New Vision

“There is no assurance from the powers that be that journalists will be safeguarded and that has affected journalists especially those that do not have the backing of their media houses like I do. So those who work for smaller media houses miss out on a lot. The other challenge is that we cannot be everywhere and yet everybody is very important in the coverage of the election. When I got injured, there were many people that left the campaign trail because of that.” —Reporter, NBS TV

“It has created fear among reporters. There are those reporters we know are so brave, but they too got scared. One reporter asked to be removed from the campaign trail of one of the opposition candidates following several attacks on her colleagues. She stayed put for about two weeks and refused to be redeployed afterwards. When you attach a reporter to a certain candidate, they get to know the ins and outs of the party. But when you withdraw them and have to assign someone else, this person starts from scratch and you do not get the in-depth reporting that you expect from them.” —Editor, KFM

On the effects of the Media Council’s decision to accredit journalists covering the elections

“That is a very big issue here. In the entire station, we do not have anybody accredited. We have tried to engage the security guys here on how we can be part of the elections even without accreditation, and our plea seems to be getting heard. We were allowed to cover when the ballot materials were delivered. We hope we shall be allowed to cover events on election day.” —Journalist, Voice of Life, Arua UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 71

“We have been seeking for clarification on this matter. Reporters are afraid that by not having accreditation, our work will be affected in covering the elections. We have qualified people but we have not received accreditation from both Media Council and the EC. We are worried by that, especially whether we shall be allowed to cover results at the tally centre.” —Journalist, Radio Pacis, Gulu

On equitable coverage of the leading presidential candidates

“I see that we are reaching a level where I see growth in media and journalism generally, where people in the newsrooms now know what they should do. I also think after the Supreme Court ruling in 2016, many media houses went to the drawing board on how to do things better. Technology has also improved and allowed better coverage. Some of the candidates are also live on Facebook and (YouTube). So, it is easier to get the story. Collaboration among media people and information sharing is also easier now.” —Journalist, Radio Pacis, Gulu

“Because of Covid-19 (access to) President Museveni was restricted. To attend his functions, one had to undergo a Covid test. His campaigns were restricted meetings. But there was a lot of action in the Bobi Wine camp. The same with Amuriat’s camp. Action sells and they were also new candidates whom people wanted to know. They have listened to Museveni for 35 years.” —Journalist, URN

“These candidates having their own media teams has forced the mainstream media to cover them because they are churning out information every now and then. So, some of the mainstream media houses are forced to play catch-up because when Ghetto Media, for instance, posts something and it is a good story, they send their reporters to go and do in-depth stories.” —Journalist, NBS TV

On marginalisation of women in media representations

“I think that is just laxity; it is just that people are not serious or not interested in interviewing women. They do not make an effort to reach out to the women. I don’t think there is any good reason if they wanted to.” —Journalist, Etoil A Karamoja 72 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

“It is just the reflection of male domination and failure by the newsrooms or media houses to have a deliberate effort for integration of a gender perspective into election coverage. This should have emphasis in every story idea discussed or assignment given.” — Editor, Arua One

“URN has a policy on balancing voices in coverage. There is a tool on our website which helps journalists to know how many voices of women are included in a story. Obviously one can see these voices are always not enough.” —Journalist, URN UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS JAN 2021 73

CONCLUSION

The campaigns leading to the 14 January presidential and parliamentary elections were unusual in a number of ways. The Covid-19 pandemic and the government’s response measures, the unprecedented levels of violence unleashed on journalists by police and security agencies, and the growing role of social media and online platforms in information (and misinformation or disinformation) dissemination took centre-stage.

As we noted in previous reports, other challenges such as regulatory overreach, intimidation of and threats to journalists by political actors, unaccountable media owners, the commercial pressures on a fragile industry battered further by the pandemic, poor investment in journalism as well as inexperience in the newsroom combined with more recent problems, including the shutdown of the internet and social media, to threaten independent journalism and the right to freedom of expression.

Not all media houses were affected the same way by these challenges. Some were able to rise above them and deliver their mandate of informing and educating the public, but a number struggled, while others abdicated their responsibility altogether.

The findings of our monitoring in the first two weeks of January ahead of voting day do not show any significant departures from what we saw in the previous months.

Key takeaways from January ll Newspapers carried more stories about incumbent Yoweri Museveni, while radio paid more attention to challenger Robert Kyagulanyi. The two top candidates attracted the same level of attention on television. FDC’s Patrick Amuriat remained third on all three platforms. ll Most stories on Museveni were either about campaign promises, commissioning or launching of public infrastructure, or citizen demands, while coverage of Kyagulanyi focused mostly on the candidate’s strategies, arrests, or adherence to Covid-19 response guidelines. Stories about Amuriat focused mainly on candidate promises and arrests. ll New Vision, which is majority owned by the government, and UBC TV, the national broadcaster, gave Museveni disproportionately higher coverage over Kyagulanyi. Once again, UBC gave more coverage to retired Gen. Henry Tumukunde than Kyagulanyi. ll The leading private television stations, NTV and NBS TV, gave more coverage to Kyagulanyi than Museveni. ll Overall, Museveni got more time on television news than Kyagulanyi, with UBC, TV West, and Baba TV tilting the scale in the incumbent’s favour. 74 JAN 2021 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS

ll Overall, the radio stations monitored gave slightly more time to Kyagulanyi in their election coverage. ll Museveni attracted more newspaper front-page coverage than Kyagulanyi. Although Kyagulanyi had been the subject of more page 1 stories than Museveni in December, the incumbent more than doubled the challenger’s coverage in January. ll Once again Museveni won the battle over front-page pictures by a distance. As in the previous two months, the president had his biggest advantage in New Vision, which carried no Kyagulanyi photo on the front page in the two weeks ahead of the elections. ll A majority of stories about the presidential candidates carried a neutral tone. Amuriat attracted the highest proportion of negative stories in the two weeks before the elections. ll Politics and power play; election management; election violence; and justice, rights, law and order were the top topics in media coverage. Policy issues continued to play second fiddle. ll Once again, the use of the right of reply was not respected across all media platforms. However, newspapers did a much better job on this score than television and radio. ll Event-based reporting continued to dominate the election coverage, with radio performing the worst. ll The campaign rally and stump speeches remained by far the biggest source of election news in newspapers and on television. Radio on the other hand relied far more on press conferences than campaign rallies. ll Most stories that carried candidate claims or promises did not subject them to scrutiny. ll There was no investigative election reporting in the two weeks before the elections. And the proportion of enterprise stories also decreased, leaving straight hard-news reporting to dominate coverage. Radio performed the worst on this measure. Newspapers did better, but only marginally. ll There was a decline in gender balance in newspaper reporting. Television and radio registered some improvement, but it was only marginal. ll The problem of single-sourcing refused to go away. ll Presidential and parliamentary candidates as well as political party officials were the most frequently cited sources. However, the media, especially newspapers and television, continued to bring ordinary people into the debate.

African Centre for Media Excellence Plot 130 Kalungu Road (Bunga-Soya), off Ggaba Road P. O. Box 11283 Kampala, Uganda Tel: +256 393 202 351 [email protected], www.acme-ug.org Facebook: ACME.UG Twitter: @ACME_Uganda