PAUL KAYONGA
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the umbrella body that brings together broadcasters, wants wants government to establish a communications tribunal to handle misunderstandings between the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) and its members.
Addressing a section of NAB members at a stakeholders’ annual meeting, Kin Kariisa, who was re-elected as chairman of NAB, said the tribunal will also help members to put UCC to account.
“It is very difficult to sue our regulator UCC yet we always have issues. Yet the Communication Act permits the establishment of a Communications Tribunal. Let’s lobby for it,” said Kariisa.
Kariisa noted that during his past term in office as NAB chairman, the association executive engaged President Museveni about the need to establish this tribunal.
In his report to the members, Kin further proposed for the strengthening of the association secretariat to independently deal with concerns of member-stations.
“The secretariat will be in position to benchmark and deal with all legal and regulatory concerns with authority and independence. We are usually challenged because our regulator has permanent and technical staff to deal with the media yet most of us have different agendas in the media. It becomes difficult to challenge them at a technical level,” he said.
The association also cautioned member-stations to prepare for the political season so that they do not make errors.
“Going forward, we have to engage all electoral stakeholders including security agencies and journalists on how to report during elections,” Kin said..
The meeting was also conducted to change leadership of the association which saw Next Media Services’ CEO Kin Kariisa re-elected as the Chairman for the next two years. Dr Innocent Nahabwe, the owner of Galaxy FM was elected vice chairman.
