Uganda army chief orders shutdown of NTV and Daily Monitor outlets
Uganda’s army chief ordered NTV Uganda and Daily Monitor shut, with soldiers guarding the newsroom and the company calling it a “military siege.”
Uganda’s leading independent media group said it was under “military siege” after Chief of Defence Forces Muhoozi Kainerugaba ordered the shutdown of NTV Uganda, Daily Monitor and affiliated outlets. Armed soldiers were reported at the headquarters in Kampala as NTV Uganda, Spark TV, Daily Monitor, KFM and Dembe FM were forced off air.
The move sharpened concern over press freedom in Uganda, where the constitution protects freedom of speech and expression, including the press and other media, but journalists are regularly targeted by security services. Reporters Without Borders says that intimidation and violence against journalists are common, especially during election periods, when scrutiny of state power matters most.
Kainerugaba, the son of President Yoweri Museveni, has expanded his political and security influence in recent months, including ordering the arrests of politicians and activists. News reports said the shutdown followed warnings he posted on X, underscoring how quickly online threats can become real-world pressure on newsrooms.
The current crackdown recalled a similar episode in 2013, when Ugandan police occupied Daily Monitor’s premises for 10 days after it published a leaked letter about an alleged assassination plot and succession politics. Then-Interior Minister Hillary Onek later ordered police to withdraw, allowing the newspaper to reopen. That earlier siege, like this one, reached beyond a single newsroom and tested the limits of public oversight in a country where media access remains tightly contested.
The pressure on Daily Monitor and its broadcast outlets also strikes at civic life outside the media industry. When a broadcaster is taken off air and a newspaper is silenced, voters lose a channel for watching how security forces, politicians and institutions behave in public. In a system already shaped by repeated clashes between journalists and the state, the shutdown adds another warning sign ahead of future political contests.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
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