Freedom of speech Dead!! Can Muhoozi Legally Shut Down NTV & Daily Monitor? Legal issues discussed

[00:00:00]This just in, the Chief of Defense Forces Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is also the son of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, has threatened to switch off Daily Monitor newspaper and also NTV Uganda. Well, in this edition of Legal News Daily, I discuss a number of issues. Number one, do NTV and Daily Monitor have a right to operate regardless of the political situation in Uganda? Number two, what are the legal issues concerning the switching off or the possible switching off of Daily Monitor and NTV Uganda? [music] And most importantly, what is a legal future and what are the legal implications of if Daily Monitor and NTV Uganda are switched off? And most importantly, what can they do moving forward? So, welcome to Legal News Daily and discuss all of this moving forward.

[00:00:45]>> [music] >> Welcome to Legal News Daily. I'm your host Terry Kahuma on this channel. Like I always say, Legal News Daily is our daily legal news segment where I discuss all things national, international, political, social, but most importantly, legal. [music] Now, straight to the point. We all know that the political situation has not been so good in Uganda, >> [music] >> especially concerning the fact that Lord Mayor or former Lord Mayor Elias Lukwago has been picked and has now been arraigned before court and then charged [music] with misprision of treason.

[00:01:17]Daily Monitor, which is one of the biggest newspapers in Uganda, and also NTV Uganda, which is the biggest media house in Uganda, has gone ahead to publicize or to speak the truth to the people and now [music] it has not been in good books with the Chief of Defense Forces Muhoozi Kainerugaba. Now, he publicly went to his X platform and then stated that because of what NTV and Daily Monitor are publishing [music] about me, tarnishing his name and criticizing him for going on and arresting Lord Mayor Elias Lukwago, they he now has threatened to switch them off. What does he mean by switching them off? He basically wants to pull the plug off NTV >> [music] >> and Daily Monitor so that they do not operate and therefore that they do not give the news that they have been giving as opposed to New Vision, NBS and also UBC which are more affiliated to government. Now, what are the legal issues behind this? Number one, we we need to look at what the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda says. What governs media houses like Daily Monitor and NTV? We have freedom of press. We have freedom of speech and expression under Article 29, especially Clause 1.

[00:02:28]Now, any a citizen, any person, either you are a natural person, meaning a natural born person like me and you, or you are a a legal person, meaning you are a company incorporated by shares or by liability, whatever it is. So, Daily Monitor and New Vision are legal persons, meaning they are companies which go ahead and publish news and press and media.

[00:02:54]>> [music] >> So, therefore, press is stipulated under Article 29, Clause 1 of the Constitution, which basically states that every citizen, every natural person who is a human being and every company which is incorporated [music] under the laws of Uganda is supposed to have freedom of speech and expression.

[00:03:12]So, therefore, by Daily Monitor and New Vision giving the news about [music] what happened in reality, then that means that they have the right freedom of expression, freedom of speech and expression under Article 29, Clause 1 of the Constitution. However, this should also be done vis-a-vis the premise of national security. So, here we have national security where Muhoozi Kainerugaba is coming from and also freedom of speech and expression. So, therefore, in the premise of national security, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba is stating that by giving the news about what's happening in our country, so many people outside of Uganda are watching this media and we are going to lose things like investment, we are going to lose things like money entering the economy because NTV and Daily Monitor are stating [music] that bad things are happening in the country.

[00:04:00]Former Lord Mayors are being arrested.

[00:04:02]So, therefore, that that's where General Moses Ali Gaba [music] is coming from to say, "I'm going to switch off Daily Monitor so that they no longer publish news and also NTV." We're waiting for the response of NTV concerning this because this isn't the first time the Daily Monitor are being threatened for publishing [music] whatever news that they publish. Well, let's see where everything's going to go moving forward. I'm Remmy Is Tropical Hummer. Let's see. Does national security preside over your fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression, or does your fundamental right freedom of expression and speech should it be curtailed or restricted in the premise or in [music] the interest of national interest? Well, we also need to look at things like separation of powers, like I always say. We have the judiciary, have the legislature, and we have the executive. So, when you see a Chief of Defense Forces from the executive [music] stating that he's going to switch off media houses or media outlets, what does that say about the people [music] receiving news on a daily basis? Or how will the people be able to access their daily dose of news on a daily basis? Does that mean that when they're switched off, we're only going to be listening to UBC, which is Uganda Broadcasting Corporation, or NBS TV, or we're [music] only going to be reading news from The New Vision, which is the government newspaper? Well, leave that up to [music] you, the people.

[00:05:22]Let's see where everything's going to go moving forward. Let's see whether indeed NTV and Daily Monitor will be switched off moving forward. I'm Remmy Is Tropical Hummer. Until next time, I'll see you. Bye-bye.

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