This article, written by HRH / Niels Jacob Harbitz, is based on a recent article in the Norwegian magazine ´Bistandsaktuelt´ published by Norad; the Norwegian state agency for development cooperation.
Kabushenga´s email, the article continues, makes it clear that the President´s office has noted that the Council´s news service for Africa, simply called Africa News Update, often quotes the newspaper the Monitor. That, it seems, is more than the officer can handle. The Monitor is the best known independent newspaper in Uganda, but according to Kabushenga, it is far from trustworthy.
You’re just citing from one side
Kabushenga adds that the President´s office would expect that ´a respectable organisation like the Norwegian Council for Africa from a country with close relations with Uganda would do more to find out what the facts are than just citing from one side´. -It says a lot about the working conditions for the media in Uganda when the President´s office in a personal letter strongly suggests that we should not use one of their country´s good, independent newspapers, says Sigurd Jorde, editor of the close to daily newsletter. It should also be noted that Kabushenga´s accusation is simply not true. In today´s issue of Africa News Service, for instance, two out of three articles relating to Uganda have been taken from the New Vision, the far more Museveni-loyal competitor to the Daily Monitor.
