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MEDIA COVERAGE
of the2021 Elections
PRELIMINARY REPORT
UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE
OF THE 2021 ELECTIONS
(OCT–NOV 2020)
PRELIMINARY
REPORT
DECEMBER 2020
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
info@acme-ug.org
www.acme-ug.org
Facebook: ACME.UG
Twitter: @ACME_Uganda
UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020) iii
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V
INTRODUCTION 1
BACKGROUND 2
Media role in elections 2
The media landscape in Uganda 2
Findings of previous monitoring reports on media coverage of elections 4
Principles identified in guidelines on media coverage of elections 5
RESEARCH QUESTIONS 6
METHODOLOGY 7
KEY FINDINGS 19
CONCLUSION 68
Key takeaways 69
UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020) v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
T
his research report was written by Brian Ssenabulya (ACME Programme Associate, Media
Monitoring and Research), Elijah Mangeni (Programme Officer, Monitoring and Evaluation),
and Executive Director Peter G. Mwesige (Ph.D).
The coding for the content analysis was conducted by 12 research assistants.
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 (Oct–Nov 2020) 1
INTRODUCTION
T
his report looks at Ugandan news media coverage of the 2021 elections, focusing on five
key publications, six television stations, and 35 radio stations. It explores the attention
these newspapers and a news magazine, television and radio stations paid the election-
related news and issues in October and November 2020 and the nature of their coverage. 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.
Relying mainly on quantitative content analysis, the report explores 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 also 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 time was dedicated to each candidate across the three media platforms monitored,
and the tone of coverage of the contenders.
BACKGROUND
A
s 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 significant
attention to the activities of the media and their coverage of elections”.1
Media monitoring is particularly critical this election cycle because the Electoral Commission directed
that campaigning be conducted “scientifically” (i.e. soliciting votes largely through the media 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).
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.
Although Uganda has some of the most vibrant media in east and southern Africa, for very many
years the country has been characterised by the international press freedom watchdog Freedom
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 (Oct–Nov 2020) 3
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 security officials, advertiser influence, 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 only 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 act, a pubic 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:
“(b) Equitable coverage and opportunity is given to political parties and organisations
participating in an election.”
The regulations also extend the requirement of equitable treatment to political parties and
organisations. 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
4 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020)
broadcaster shall afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views and shall
treat all political parties equitably.”
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.
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.
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
ll Interrogation of claims and promises by candidates and parties
6 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020)
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 (Oct–Nov 2020) 7
METHODOLOGY
T
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 Bukedde, Daily Monitor, New Vision, The Observer and The Independent
from 1 October–30 November 2020. These include all articles that fell under news, commentary/
opinion, features, letters, Q & A, and profiles. A total of 459 newspaper articles from October
and 871 from November were analysed. Two daily news bulletins and one weekly talk-show were
monitored for each TV and radio station. A total of 763 stories and show episodes from October
and 1,493 from November from six major television stations, namely, Baba TV, Bukedde TV, NBS,
NTV, TV West, and UBC, were analysed. The 35 radio stations monitored produced 1,118 stories
and talk show episodes in October and 2,486 in November for this analysis.
Bukedde, Daily Monitor, and New Vision 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:
TV station Time of 1st news bulletin Time of 2nd news bulletin Name of weekly talk-show
The following radio stations, representing the different political regions of the country, were
monitored:
Content analysis
In the main we analysed manifest content. “Manifest content refers to what is explicitly stated and
draws on the objective and replicable qualities of quantitative methods” (Hilton and Hunt (2010).5
However, where appropriate and necessary, we also undertook qualitative analysis of latent content.6
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 included
the following7:
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
5 Hilton, S. & Hunt, K. (2010). UK newspaper representations of the 2009-10 outbreak of swine flue: one health
scare not over-hyped by the media?” Research Report, J Epidemiol, Community Health
6 See, Krippendorf, K. (2004). Content analysis: an introduction to its methodology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
Publications.
7 A full list of the variables and their definitions is detailed in the coding sheet in Annex 1.
10 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020)
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 be 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.
Volume of stories
In October, although elections dominated media coverage, the volume of stories was still relatively
low. The five newspapers monitored published 459 stories, with New Vision leading the pack with a
share of 36.6% followed closely by Daily Monitor with 32.5%. The two weeklies, The Observer and
The Independent combined published only 15 election stories or less than 5% of the total published
by the two English-language dailies.
October November
Newspaper election coverage almost doubled from 459 stories in October to 871 in November.
In both months New Vision had the highest share of stories followed closely by Daily Monitor.
12 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020)
October November
In both October and November, the six television stations monitored carried more stories than the
newspapers. NBS led in October with nearly a third of the story count, while NTV had the highest
share of election stories in November.
October November
In both months, Kampala had the lion’s share of stories (37.3% and 34.9%), followed by the eastern
region. The western region, which had a slightly higher number of radio stations monitored, was third.
UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020) 13
The parliamentary election garnered a lot of attention in October because of the increased activity
around NRM party primaries, selection of National Unity Platform flag bearers, and the nomination
of Members of Parliament by the Electoral Commission. The nomination of presidential candidates
and the start of the campaigns in November saw the presidential election overtake the parliamentary
election in terms of attention across all the three media platforms.
October November
News stories accounted for nearly 8 out of every 10 newspaper stories published in the two months.
There was a slight increase in general commentary and opinion in November, but the share of news
analysis went down.
October November
October November
October November
Space dedicated to election coverage by the newspapers monitored increased from nearly
210,000cm2 (the equivalent of 235 full pages) in October to about 350,000 cm2 (about 423 full
pages) in November. This translates to about 10% of total newspaper space. The November space
was the equivalent of 3.5 pages per day for each of the four newspapers.
October November
Television dedicated a significant amount of time to elections. NBS led the way in October, followed
by NTV, with UBC a distant third. In November, NTV dedicated the highest share of time to elections,
followed by UBC, and NBS. The November numbers suggest NTV dedicated nearly an hour to election
coverage each day, while UBC gave about 51 minutes and NBS 48 minutes daily.
October November
On average radio dedicated less time to election coverage than television in both October and
November. The total time dedicated to election coverage on radio grew by more than 3,000 minutes
(or 50 hours) in November.
UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020) 19
KEY FINDINGS
TABLE 8A: Volume of stories on presidential candidates across the three media
platforms (OCT)
Newspaper TV Radio
TABLE 8B: Volume of stories on presidential candidates across the three media
platforms (NOV)
Newspaper TV Radio
NUP’s Robert Kyagulanyi attracted the highest proportion of stories across all three platforms.
Museveni followed in second place, particularly closely in the newspapers and on television. The
gap between the two was much wider on radio. Amuriat was third.
In October Museveni had received the highest share of stories across the three platforms. It would
appear that the incessant harassment Kyagulanyi by police and security forces earned him more
publicity.
Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu 30.0 35.6 35.5 20.0 12.5 14.3 20.0
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 20.0 15.6 11.8 20.0 37.5 57.1 24.6
Patrick Oboi Amuriat 15.0 24.4 22.4 10.0 12.5 14.3 16.9
Mugisha Muntu 5.0 4.4 7.9 10.0 12.5 0.0 12.3
Norbert Mao 10.0 6.7 7.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 7.7
Henry Tumukunde 5.0 11.1 3.9 20.0 12.5 0.0 4.6
Joseph Kabuleta 5.0 0.0 1.3 10.0 6.3 0.0 3.1
Nancy Kalembe 5.0 0.0 1.3 0.0 6.3 0.0 0.0
Fred Mwesigye 0.0 0.0 1.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.5
Willy Mayambala 0.0 0.0 0.0 10.0 0.0 0.0 1.5
Other 5.0 2.2 6.6 0.0 0.0 14.3 7.7
22 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020)
Kyagulanyi received the highest proportion of coverage in all the publications monitored, except
New Vision. In October, both New Vision and Bukedde had given Museveni the highest share of
stories, while Daily Monitor had paid more attention to Amuriat.
Kyagulanyi received the highest share of stories on four of the six television stations monitored,
namely Baba TV, Bukedde TV, NBS, and NTV. Museveni had the highest proportion of stories on TV
West and UBC.
On radio, Kyagulanyi received the highest proportion of stories in all regions, except northern Uganda
where Museveni was top. Museveni was second in all the other regions.
The October results had shown notable regional variations, with Kyagulanyi receiving the highest
proportion of stories in Kampala, central and eastern Uganda, while Museveni led in West Nile,
northern and western Uganda.
24 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020)
October November
Front-page stories on the candidates grew from 6 in October to 53 in November. In October, Amuriat
received the highest number of stories on the front page. Museveni and Kyagulanyi were tied in
second place, while in November the two attracted the same number of stories to claim first place.
8 Only Bukedde and Daily Monitor carried front-page stories about the candidates in October.
UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020) 25
October November
Museveni received the highest proportion of pictures on the front pages in both October and
November. Kyagulanyi came second in both months, followed by Amuriat (they tied in October).
New Vision gave Museveni the highest proportion of pictures in November. Out of the 20 candidate
pictures the newspaper published on the front page, 17 were Museveni’s while Kyagulanyi, Amuriat
and Muntu had one each.
Daily Monitor had a higher proportion of Kyagulanyi front-page pictures. Amuriat was second in the
paper while Museveni came third.
UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020) 27
October November
Stories about Kyagulanyi took up the biggest share of space allocated to presidential candidates
in November (28%). Museveni came in second with 23.8% and Amuriat third with 12.8%. In October,
Museveni stories had received the biggest share of space (29.6%) followed closely by Kyagulanyi’s
(27.2%). Amuriat was again third. The top three candidates took up 64.6% of the space, down from
74.4% in October.
Candidate – October Bukedde Daily Monitor New Vision The The Observer
(%) (%) (%) Independent
Candidate – October Bukedde Daily Monitor New Vision The The Observer
(%) (%) (%) Independent
Candidate – November Bukedde (%) Daily Monitor New Vision The Observer
(%) (%) (%)
Kyagulanyi took up more newspaper space in all the newspapers monitored in November, except
New Vision. Bukedde gave the NUP leader the highest proportion of space (39.6%) followed by Daily
Monitor (28.3%). In New Vision Museveni took up 26.2% of the space against Kyagulanyi’s 21.3%.
In October, New Vision had given Museveni disproportionately more space than the other top
candidates.
October November
Museveni and Kyagulanyi were tied in time allocated to them in television stories in November. Amuriat
was third. In October, Muntu had received the highest share of TV time, followed by Museveni and
Amuriat. Kyagulanyi was fourth.
Kyagulanyi stories received the highest proportion of time on four of the six television stations
monitored. These were Baba TV, Bukedde TV, NBS and NTV. Independent Henry Tumukunde received
the biggest share of time on TV West, where Museveni was second, while UBC gave the incumbent
the most time.
October November
Kyagulanyi received the highest proportion of time on the radio stations monitored in both October
and November. Museveni received the second biggest share of radio time while Amuriat was third.
Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu 43.6 35.5 44.4 20.4 7.2 9.5 23.1
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 45.5 12.1 11.0 23.3 22.3 45.2 23.2
Patrick Oboi Amuriat 3.2 21.2 23.8 7.5 44.4 22.6 16.5
Mugisha Muntu 1.0 7.8 5.5 12.4 8.6 0.0 14.6
Henry Tumukunde 1.0 14.7 2.6 20.4 9.2 0.0 2.9
Norbert Mao 2.2 6.3 5.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.0
Joseph Kabuleta 1.0 0.0 0.8 8.0 4.4 0.0 4.0
Nancy Kalembe 1.6 0.0 1.1 0.0 3.9 0.0 0.0
Fred Mwesigye 0.0 0.0 1.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.3
Willy Mayambala 0.0 0.0 0.0 8.0 0.0 0.0 1.3
Other 1.0 2.5 4.3 0.0 0.0 22.6 9.1
Robert Kyagulanyi 27 33 26 24 26 23 25
Ssentamu (Bobi Wine)
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 15 18 18 23 18 18 25
Patrick Oboi Amuriat 13 13 14 17 23 13 8
Henry Tumukunde 8 6 11 9 2 12 9
Mugisha Muntu 8 7 5 5 1 7 11
Nancy Kalembe 3 6 7 5 2 7 5
Norbert Mao 7 4 6 5 9 4 6
John Katumba 13 7 7 6 4 8 2
Joseph Kabuleta 2 2 2 3 9 5 6
Fred Mwesigye 1 1 1 0 5 0 5
Willy Mayambala 3 4 3 3 1 3 0
32 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020)
Kyagulanyi received more radio time than all other candidates in all regions except western Uganda
where he tied with Museveni.
TABLE 14B: Tone of coverage across the three media platforms (November)
Most election stories took on a neutral tone in both October and November. In November, television
returned the highest proportion of stories with a neutral tone. Newspapers had the highest share
of both stories with a positive and negative tone.
Kyagulanyi and Amuriat had the highest proportion of stories with a negative tone, while Museveni
received the highest share of stories with a positive tone. The incumbent had received the highest
proportion of negative stories in October.
Kyagulanyi received the highest proportion of stories with a negative tone in November. Incumbent
Museveni received the highest share of stories with a positive tone.
36 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020)
Joseph Kabuleta received the highest proportion of stories with a negative tone, followed by
Kyagulanyi, Amuriat, Museveni and Tumukunde (in that order).
This variable applies only to stories that contain attacks on presidential candidates by their opponents
or others. Where such attacks happen, the regulations governing media coverage in Uganda require
that the attacked candidate is given the opportunity to respond. In about 8 out of every 10 cases
where such attacks occurred, candidates were not given the right of reply. The problem was more
pronounced on television.
UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020) 37
Daily Monitor offered the right of reply more than its competitors.
Among the TV stations monitored, NBS had the highest proportion of stories where the right of
reply was offered.
All three media platforms monitored relied heavily on event-driven reporting and much less on
issue-based coverage. Event-based reports were far more prevalent on radio in both October and
November.
UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020) 39
The Independent had the highest proportion of issue-based coverage. Among the dailies, Daily
Monitor returned the highest proportion of issue-based stories. Bukedde had the highest percentage
of event-based reports.
TV West had no issue-based story in November, while Bukedde TV had only 5 issue-based stories
out of a count of 266.
UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020) 41
October November
October November
In November campaign rallies overtook other political party activities as the biggest source of election
news in the newspapers. Independent reporting, research or investigation by journalist accounted
for only 1 out of every 10 newspaper election stories. Most stories originated from events or actions
by the key players (other than ordinary people).
October November
October November
The campaign rally remained the top source of election news on radio as well. Like television, radio
relied heavily on news conferences and other activities by the Electoral Commission and political
parties.
TABLE 19B: Reporting formats across the three media platforms (November)
There was very little investigative reporting in both October and November across all three media
platforms. Newspapers had a higher proportion of enterprise reporting. Overall, conventional
reporting was more dominant than we usually see in public affairs reporting.
46 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020)
The Independent and The Observer, perhaps not surprisingly, had the highest proportion of
stories using the enterprise/interpretive format. Only Daily Monitor carried coverage based on the
investigation format—one story out of 299 published in November.
UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020) 49
On television, NBS had the highest proportion of stories employing the enterprise-interpretive format
(11.2%), replacing NTV which led in this category in October with 19%. Baba TV, Bukedde, TV West,
and UBC were all under 5 percent.
TABLE 20B: Number of sources per story across the three media platforms (November)
The single-sourcing challenge that afflicts public affairs reporting also reared its ugly head in election
reporting. It was most pronounced on radio where more than half of the stories had 1 source while
another 12.1% had no source. The number of newspaper and television stories with two or more
sources went down from nearly two thirds and three quarters to 62.3% and 63.8% respectively. And
single sourced stories across the two platforms increased from 24% to 31% and 32% respectively.
UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020) 51
Number of sources - Bukedde % Daily New Vision The Independent The Observer
November (n=207) Monitor % % (n=278) % (n=8) % (n=8)
(n=229)
Among the daily newspapers monitored, in November New Vision had the highest proportion of
stories with two or more sources (60.8%) while its sister paper Bukedde had the highest proportion
of stories with 1 or no source. Among all publications, The Independent had the highest proportion
of stories with one or no source.
Among the television stations, in November TV West had the highest proportion of stories with
two or more sources (91.7%), followed by Bukedde TV (71.4%). UBC had the highest proportion of
stories with one or no source (47.7%) followed by NBS (41.9%).
In October, NTV had the highest proportion of stories with two more sources (82.7%), followed by
TV West (81.9%). NBS had the highest proportion of single-sourced stories (33%) followed by UBC
(24.8%).
54 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020)
October November
In November, ordinary people and presidential candidates replaced parliamentary candidates and
political party officials as the top two categories of sources for newspaper election stories.
UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020) 55
October November
Presidential candidates, ordinary people and political party officials were the top three source
categories on television.
56 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020)
October November
Presidential candidates took an even bigger share of radio sourcing, followed by political party officials
and police. As in October, radio did not use ordinary people as sources as much as newspapers
and television.
UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020) 57
TABLE 22B: Gender of sources across the three media platforms (November)
Across all three media platforms monitored, men dominated coverage in both October and November.
Radio performed the poorest on the gender score, dropping from 21% of female sources in October
to 13% in November.
58 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020)
The trend shows when it comes to gender representation there was retrogression across all three
platforms.
Among the newspapers monitored, New Vision had the highest proportion of female sources in
November (25.5%). It also topped on the gender score in October. The Observer had the lowest
representation of women (8.3%).
Among the TV stations, Baba TV had the highest proportion of female sources in November followed
closely by TV West and Bukedde TV. NBS had the lowest proportion of female sources.
In October, UBC had the highest proportion of female sources (28%) followed by Bukedde (26.3%)
and Baba TV (25.9%).
UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020) 61
Sources - Newspapers Freq. Female Male Freq. Female Male Freq. Female Male
(%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Parliamentary candidate 205 38.0 62.0 303 34.7 65.3 275 37.1 62.9
Party official 225 16.9 83.1 534 25.3 74.7 448 14.7 85.3
Ordinary person 448 35.3 64.7 634 22.9 77.1 307 23.8 76.2
Electoral Commission 81 1.2 98.8 161 0.6 99.4 208 1.9 98.1
official
Presidential candidate 407 7.6 92.4 812 6.0 94.0 1139 5.4 94.6
Expert 74 14.9 85.1 105 8.6 91.4 83 12.0 88.0
Police 102 3.9 96.1 184 4.3 95.7 354 1.7 98.3
Central government 44 20.5 79.5 34 29.4 70.6 46 8.7 91.3
official
NGO/CSO official 54 40.7 59.3 94 30.9 69.1 99 25.3 74.7
Local govt representative 43 25.6 74.4 49 20.4 79.6 89 11.2 88.8
Candidate’s agent 42 26.2 73.8 70 27.1 72.9 48 12.5 87.5
Minister 50 46.0 54.0 139 47.5 52.5 66 50.0 50.0
Religious representative 44 0.0 100.0 97 3.1 96.9 130 2.3 97.7
Member of Parliament 43 27.9 72.1 103 31.1 68.9 44 27.3 72.7
Resident District 14 14.3 85.7 31 9.7 90.3 41 12.2 87.8
Commissioner
Diplomatic representative 8 0.0 100.0 4 50.0 50.0 11 9.1 90.9
Speaker of Parliament 3 100.0 0.0 5 100.0 0.0 10 100.0 0.0
Cultural representative 9 0.0 100.0 28 0.0 100.0 46 0.0 100.0
Judicial personnel 12 25.0 75.0 14 14.3 85.7 28 46.4 53.6
Military/security 11 18.2 81.8 19 10.5 89.5 22 18.2 81.8
Business representative 33 24.2 75.8 19 10.5 89.5 16 18.8 81.3
President 1 0.0 100.0 6 0.0 100.0 2 0.0 100.0
International NGO 4 25.0 75.0 4 50.0 50.0 5 0.0 100.0
representative
Election observer 4 0.0 100.0 3 0.0 100.0 7 28.6 71.4
Other 17 5.9 94.1 12 33.3 66.7 21 19.0 81.0
If it’s any consolation, there were a number of categories where the percentage of female sources
was well above average or as high as that of men. These included ordinary people, parliamentary
62 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020)
This variable only applies to stories that contain claims and promises made by presidential candidates.
In a vast majority of stories with such claims they were not questioned. Radio performed poorest
on this front, followed closely by television. But even the newspapers score of 18.9% is very low by
any standards.
UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020) 63
Daily Monitor had the highest proportion of stories where claims or promises made by candidates
were interrogated (30.9%). Bukedde had the poorest record on this score, with only 7% of stories
with claims by candidates being questioned.
Among the TV stations monitored, Baba TV had the highest proportion of stories where claims
were interrogated. TV West had the lowest proportion of stories where claims where questioned,
followed by Bukedde TV. The latter is particularly noteworthy because it carried the highest num-
ber of stories with claims or promises by candidates.
64 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020)
October November
‘Politics & power play’ continued to dominate newspaper election coverage, although the share
fell from 71% in October to 22.3% in November. 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 exclude stories that focused on policy issues.
As the attention to ‘politics & power play’ went down, focus turned to policy issues in areas such as
works and transport, security & defence, education, and agriculture.
October November
October November
‘Politics & power play’ received the highest attention on television as well. However, television paid
more attention to election violence than newspapers.
October November
October November
Tourism - - 15 0.4
Oil & gas - - 15 0.4
Housing - - 8 0.2
Election observation 4 0.4 7 0.2
Foreign & international affairs - - 7 0.2
Arts & culture - - 6 0.2
Sports & recreation - - 4 0.1
ICT - - 4 0.1
Local government/administration - - 4 0.1
Religion - - 3 0.1
Weather & climate - - 2 0.1
Natural disasters - - 1 0.0
Other - - 32 0.9
Total 1118 100 3536 100.0
The pattern on television was somewhat repeated on radio where ‘politics & power play’ came
top, followed by justice, law and order issues, and election violence.
68 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020)
CONCLUSION
T
he journalists and media houses covering the 2021 elections have worked under the most
extraordinary circumstances. Not only has the Covid-19 pandemic posed health threats to
journalists who are in some cases not even sure they will still have jobs after the elections,
it has also seen media houses making significant cutbacks on investments in journalism. The
promise of a windfall from political advertising in the wake of the Electoral Commission’s push
for the so-called scientific campaigns also appears to have made some newsroom managers and
media owners reluctant to offer candidates ‘free publicity’. At the same time, an unprecedented
level of violence has been unleashed on journalists covering electoral events especially of NUP’s
Robert Kyagulanyi and FDC’s Patrick Amuriat. Meanwhile many journalists have been rattled
by the Media Council of Uganda’s ongoing efforts to force accreditation of journalists to cover
election-related events, including rallies. A good number of journalists working for upcountry
radio stations or stringing from the countryside for the Kampala-based media houses neither
have the money that they have been asked to pay nor the university degrees that the Press and
Journalist Act prescribes.
Some of the gaps in coverage identified in this report could be attributed to the challenges mentioned
above, in addition to the enduring problem of many young newsrooms staffed by inexperienced
journalists who are in some cases only covering their first election.
Make no mistake, there are several examples of good election reporting that has stood out and new
innovations such as NTV’s Fact Checker, NBS TV’s Elections 360, and New Vision’s Citizens’ Manifesto,
a large-scale public opinion survey that has been used to infuse context in some election stories.
But the dynamism shown by some of the big media houses easily masks the challenges under which
most of the country’s newsrooms, and especially those at upcountry radio stations, which are the
major sources of news for most Ugandans, operate.
Yet, amidst uncertainty and fear, journalists have covered the electoral process with enthusiasm, many
also using social media to share information that very often does not get into their published stories.
The findings of our research suggest that more needs to be done if the media are to fulfill their role
of providing citizens with timely and accurate information to help them make informed political
choices as well as monitoring the fairness of the electoral process.
UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020) 69
Key takeaways
ll There appears to be a little more equitable coverage of the ‘leading’ presidential candidates
than in the last elections. In November, a number of ‘minor’ candidates also attracted some
decent coverage. It is likely, however, that the attention paid to the ‘leading’ opposition
candidates has been driven in part by the incessant police and military attacks especially on
opposition candidates Kyagulanyi and Amuriat as well as their supporters. Whereas they have
matched and in some cases exceeded the coverage incumbent Museveni has attracted, often
more att ntion has been paid to the drama and violence around the campaigns than the issues
and party platforms.
ll Even where the drama and violence have been the focus of media attention, often the reporting
has been devoid of the background and context necessary to explain what is actually happening
and why.
ll A lot of the reporting has remained heavily event-driven rather than issue-based. Although the
major parties launched manifestos at the beginning of the campaigns, many a reader, viewer or
listener will be hard-pressed to recall the position of many candidates on key issues.
ll The campaign rally or meetings has been the biggest source of news since the campaigns
opened. And most reporting has rarely gone beyond the stump speeches of the candidates
and their surrogates.
ll It should worry all good citizens that radio, which is the source of information for 80 percent
of Ugandans, continues to offer the least amount of time to election news. Although some
radio stations stand out for their comprehensive political reporting, a vast majority continue
to make do with short reports mostly about events organised by political parties, the Electoral
Commission, local leaders, and police.
ll In the two months that we have monitored so far, there was hardly any investigative election
reporting. It appears, however, that enterprise reporting is growing, especially in newspapers
and on television.
ll All the three legacy platforms monitored have not offered adequate variety of content. News
overwhelmingly dominates their offerings. The low numbers of features, packages for radio,
and analysis for print stand out. More could be done to engage audiences through varied story
formats.
ll The challenge of insufficient interrogation of candidate and party claims also persists. A vast
majority of the media reports where claims and promises were made did not contain any
serious scrutiny from the journalists.
ll Similarly, most media houses have allowed attacks on some candidates to be published without
response from those who are attacked. It is not always clear whether the candidates on the
receiving end are offered the right of reply. Our findings show that across all media platforms
monitored eight out of 10 stories that contained attacks did not show the use of the right of
reply.
ll The marginalisation of women in media representations continues to show in the ongoing
election coverage. The numbers from the October and November coverage suggest that the
70 UGANDAN MEDIA COVERAGE of the 2021 ELECTIONS (Oct–Nov 2020)
use of female sources has stagnated in the low 20’s. It appears the gender-sensitive reporting
that media support groups have pushed is yet to bear fruit.
ll Single-sourcing also remains a challenge. Whereas a number of television stations and
newspapers have employed multiple sourcing in a majority of their stories, many radio stations
continue to rely on single sources.
ll The national broadcaster, UBC, has spread around its coverage to opposition candidates.
Kyagulanyi and, especially, Amuriat have received some significant coverage, even if the
incumbent has dominated both in terms of frequency of stories and the amount of time
dedicated to his campaign.
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
info@acme-ug.org, www.acme-ug.org
Facebook: ACME.UG
Twitter: @ACME_Uganda