German embassy to equip 30 Ugandan radio stations

Over 30 radio stations across Uganda are set to receive support remotely through trainings in freedom of expression.

This was revealed by Director, East Africa Radio Advertising Services (EARS) Douglas Mutumba, during the launch of a media training on freedom of expression for 30 radio brodcasters on Monday, at Esella Hotel.

The two-day training which ends Tuesday, is funded by the German government and supported by EARS and Media In Cooporation and Transition (MICT), a German NGO.

On Monday, Mutumba said that despite this being the first training of this kind, it is going to be looked at as an introduction and that thereafter, they shall focus on remote support of individual radio stations.

He added that the German Embassy, MICT and EARS would soon start a countrywide tour to their partner radio stations to equip them with more knowledge on freedom of expression.

"We will remotely support them especially in line with their content and we shall also send our own trainers to each radio station so they can train them in their own capacities in terms of equipment and the environment they're operating in because we're very cognizant of the fact that they all work in different communities and with different resources"

He added, "So, we're supporting them so that they can use this kind of program to benchmark also their other programs and hopefully this helps them to improve on their audiences by getting more confidence from their audiences, increasing their numbers and helping them increase their revenues from this kind of content."

Mutumba thanked the German embassy in Uganda for supporting the program which he said will go a long way in enhancing the knowledge of radio broadcasters in freedom of expression especially at community level.