They promoted him and subdued his opponents

The 2011 elections were contested by more candidates compared to previous polls. But the lack of a level playing field and strong advantage of incumbency compromised the competitive nature of the polls….. The main concern regarding the campaign, and indeed regarding the overall character of the election, was the lack of a level playing field, the use of money and abuse of incumbency in the process. The magnitude of resources that was deployed by the ruling National Resistance Movement, its huge level of funding and overwhelming advantage of incumbency, once again, challenged the notion of a level playing field in the entire process,” the Chairperson of the Commonwealth Observer Group, Dame Billie Miller, said in a statement on February 20, two days after the voting.

The top culprits in this unlevel playing field are not only state organs. The media too has been caught in the conspiracy. This year’s election has stripped the media of its traditional claim of “fairness and balance” and left the 4th estate, as the press is otherwise known, squarely in the dock naked and knackered.

Findings of various local media monitoring organisations and election observation groups attest to this. According to the Media Monitoring Network (MEMONET) report, Museveni dominated the FM radio airwaves with 50.7% of all news reports for the whole campaign period. The report is a compilation of findings from monitoring the election news coverage of ten FM radio subsidiaries of CBS and UBC (in Central region), Unity FM and Radio Lira (Northern region), Open Gate FM and Rock Mambo FM (Eastern region), Spice FM and Liberty FM (mid western region), and Radio West and Vision FM (South Western region).

Daily newspapers had 72.4% of their election news about Museveni while weekly papers gave him 38.7%. “Museveni maintained his lead as news maker in the print media. He was followed by Besigye at 13.5% (in dailies) and 15.8% (weeklies), which was a drastic fall in media influence,” the MEMONET report observes.

Mao received 5.1% daily newspaper coverage but was hardly visible in the weeklies.

Compared to the daily newspapers, MEMONET says that the election coverage by weeklies was a little more balanced in regard to the space allocated to presidential candidates.

Even at party level, the ruling NRM dominated the newspaper coverage with 68.4%; FDC 17.9% and DP 4.8% of total space in the dailies.

“The NRM dominance could be associated with the incumbency which had Museveni enjoying the services of the Presidential Press Unit (PPU), UBC radio and The New Vision,” the report reads in part.

The weeklies covered FDC most at 35.7% followed by NRM at 28.2% and UFA at 14.9%. Museveni emerged the most quoted candidate in the dailies at 65.8% while Besigye dominated the weeklies at 42.8% followed by Beti Kamya with 38.9%.

The preliminary report of the European Union indicts the publicly funded Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) for partisan coverage contrary to the law and constitutional requirement for all government media to accord equal coverage to candidates.

The UBC radio and TV instead, according to the EU media monitors, allocated Museveni 14 hours of airtime and his closest challenger Kizza Besigye was given only 56 minutes.

This finding was also echoed by other monitors.

“While the combined FM radio time for Museveni was greater than for all the other presidential candidates, UBC radio coverage of 81.8% was tilted in favour of the same candidate. This is evidently in contravention of section 23 of the Presidential Elections Act 2005 (as amended) on equal treatment of, freedom of expression and access to information of candidates,” says the MEMORITO report.

The private media was not very different either.

“UBC radio followed a similar pattern, allocating three times the amount of airtime to President Museveni and the NRM compared with that allocated to Dr Besigye and main opposition parties added together. UBC radio also used an increasingly negative tone towards the opposition parties as the election day approached,” the EU election observers added.

In the rural areas opposition presidential candidates like Besigye were denied access to local FM stations even after paying for airtime. Sometimes the radio stations would be switched off air shortly after an opposition candidate had started speaking to listeners as was the case at Bunyoro’s Kibaale-Kagadi Community radio (KDR).

On other occasions, hours before the booked time, an opposition candidate would be told the show would not be hosted and the police would surround the radio station premises. This happened to Besigye in Nakaseke district in the central region.

“Unequal access to media in particular the government dominance of state-owned media, the only broadcasting network covering almost all areas of the country, was not balanced by private radio stations established outside the capital,” the EU observers said.

Given that over 80% of Ugandans live in rural and radio is the main source of information. So denying other candidates airtime on private local radio stations meant that they were unable to reach the biggest section of the voters to canvass support.

A study by East African Institute of Media Excellence showed that 75% of FM radios in the country are owned by NRM politicians or supporters, making it nearly impossible for the opposition to use such media.

In response to scathing criticism from both local and international election observers, the UBC management moved fast to sack TV manager Charles Musana and chief news editor Andrew Mugyema. No reason was given for their dismissal but reporters at the national broadcaster say the two were sacrificed to save the face of the station.

As campaigns reached midway, other opposition presidential candidates suffered a virtual media blackout. Bidandi Ssali was the biggest casualty.

Kamya and Besigye petitioned the Electoral Commission’s Complaints Committee over the unfair coverage, but nothing was done. The EU Election Observation Mission cited this anomaly clearly in its report. “Lack of sanctioning powers seriously limited the Committee’s ability to act as an effective regulatory body and its conciliation attempts failed.”

The observers project that denial of media coverage to Besigye undermined his performance in the election.

In 2001 and 2006 elections the state harassed Besigye through violence and politically motivated arrest respectively, which forced the media to keep him in the main news headlines and on page one of the main newspapers. The strategy did not work. It instead boomeranged on the state as the huge publicity catapulted Besigye to prominence and his name rang across the country as a political martyr. In the 2011 election, the state changed to ensuring as much media blackout on Besigye as possible. It worked, his popularity dwindled, his candidature  fizzled out of most voters’ minds and ultimately did not make it to ballot box.

However despite observations of all these odds and the tilted media coverage that gave one party and candidate undue advantage to overwhelm his opponents, the observers held that the lections were “free and fair” and reflected the will of the people.

“There was a largely peaceful campaign and a reasonably calm Election Day in most areas but marred by localised incidents of violence,” the Commonwealth Observer group said.

The report contained analysis of coverage by daily newspapers like New Vision, Daily Monitor, Bukedde, and Red Pepper and weeklies like Rupiny, Etop, Orumuri, Eddoboozi and The Observer.

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