NTV Uganda and Daily Monitor, two of Uganda’s leading news outlets are under siege by security agencies and have been “shut down” according to Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the army commander of Uganda’s military.
The security operation began shortly after midnight on Saturday, according to Daily Monitor’s latest update on its website, with security personnel deployed in Namuwongo and at Kampala Serena Hotel where Daily Monitor and NTV Uganda run their operations respectively.
As of Sunday morning, there was no clear explanation for the siege from security.
The closest clues are a series of tweets posted by Gen Muhoozi late Saturday night in which he wrote “NTV and Monitor are being shut down from today”. He added that the two news outlets will not re-open without his permission.
Both NTV’s and Spark TV’s live links on the NTV website carried a dark screen labeled ‘Offline’ on Sunday morning.
“Right now, it is a no-go area,” a staff of NTV who preferred anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter told PLUGGED on Sunday.
“We have been asked to stay where we are, and to stay away from the premises until we get [further] communication,” the staff added.
On Saturday, hours before the siege began, Gen. Muhoozi posted on X that his plan to close NTV and Monitor had got approval from President Museveni.
“We are moving immediately,” he wrote.
A source at Daily Monitor told PLUGGED that as a result of the siege, the publication will not be able to publish the Monday Issue of the newspaper.
The animosity between the State and the private run Nation Media Group (NMG) which until March 2026 was owned by Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, dates back three decades.
Though it has in recent years become a staple in his public speeches, President Yoweri Museveni first used the label ‘enemy newspaper’ to describe Daily Monitor in October 2002 during his speech on Independence Day. The next day, police and other security personnel raided The Monitor offices and shut them down after the paper published a story claiming rebels had shot down a UPDF helicopter. The newspaper remained closed for 10 days.
A month after NTV launched in Uganda in December of 2006, it was taken off air after government claimed the broadcaster had not met licensing standards. It took three months for the station to resume operations.
In November last year while appearing on The Hard Questions, Suzan Nsibirwa, the Managing Director of Nation Media Group explained the implications of the persistent vilification of NMG by the State.
“I think, that vilifying effect for me, is the intended result,” Nsibirwa said then.
She explained that no amount of effort towards salvaging the relationship between the State and NMG is enough to counter the weight of the President’s repeated proclamations that continue to label Daily Monitor as an enemy paper, and the subsequent effect it has on both law enforcement and the general public.
“It (the President’s position on NMG) is not a written thing. So, everybody interprets it differently. Even the order banning us to cover the President was verbal. It was not written. The security person will interpret it as ‘You are not allowed here’ or ‘I am not allowed to smile with you’,” Nsibirwa said.
Since March 2025, NMG news outlets have endured a ban on covering events where the President is appearing, including State House. The ban would later in October extend to covering Parliament until Speaker Anita Among’s tenure came to an end recently.
Faruk Kirunda, the deputy presidential press secretary while expounding on the ban wrote on X in October last year; “H.E @KaguraMuseveni stopped NMG from covering him as an individual after persistent instances of misreporting on him”.
“President Museveni is the most media-friendly person…… However, he has severally complained about biased and unfair coverage to no avail. Media should stick to professional ethics and responsible reporting to avoid unnecessary inconveniences,” Kirunda added.
In subsequent tweets on Sunday morning following the siege on NTV and Daily Monitor, Gen Muhoozi wrote that all media in Uganda will now follow the rules. Earlier he had posted that he does not believe in free press, and that the press should be guided by the cadres of the revolution.
“I have the power in Uganda to shut down any media house I want to. I have had this power since 2017. This power was given to me by my great father President @KagutaMuseveni. NTV and Daily Monitor are learning about it today,” reads one of his posts on X.
For long, NMG has described itself as an independent news organization for its unflinching scrutiny of the State, boldness, truth and unbiased reportage. These same values that have repeatedly put the conglomerate at loggerheads with government have a lot to do with the tenets for which a group of passionate journalists including Wafula Ogutu left the Weekly Topic (one of Uganda’s pioneering news publications) to launch their own news publication.
Wafula along with colleagues David Ouma Balikoowa, Charles Onyango Obbo, Jimmy Serugo, Ogen-Kevin Aliro, Richard Tebere, and Teddy Ssezi Cheeye founded The Monitor as it was called in 1992 “to have an independent editorial platform” and a place where they would be free to express themselves.
It was The Monitor’s stories that scrutinized the new NRM government’s leadership portraying them as corrupt that quickly earned the publication labels like ‘a radical platform’ that served the interests of the political opposition. In 1993, government imposed an advertising ban on The Monitor intended to push the newspaper into financial distress and eventual closure.
Today, 34 years later, little has changed in how the State relates with NMG. The former still brands the latter as an enemy that serves foreign interests, while Daily Monitor, NTV Uganda and KFM have not ceased to represent the voice that scrutinizes government, be it on corruption, human rights, or accountability.
Just this past week, Daily Monitor ran a series titled Chasing Big Dreams during which the newspaper extensively questioned the viability of the planned construction of the Nyakisharara International Airport in Mbarara which has already received the President’s nod.
The series cast the spotlight on the absence of a feasibility study, a lack of a business case that would make this facility commercially viable, the choice of location and its disadvantages, the lack of critical services in Mbarara necessary to sustain an airport of that magnitude, the unclear financing mechanism, and Ugandan companies with a questionable background in building mega projects. The expose was a vexing window into government’s appraisal processes that seem to be void of basic due diligence.
NMG has also recently spotlit alleged abductions of individuals critical to government including a three-part series by NTV Uganda featuring an interview with Andrew Natumanya alias Tabz during which he narrated his recent ordeal following his alleged abduction and detention by security operatives.
It is possible that these stories form the basis upon which NTV Uganda and Daily Monitor’s premises were raided.
Sources at NMG that PLUGGED spoke to on Sunday said no formal communication had been made to NMG regarding the siege. Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), the regulator for broadcasters was yet to issue a comment by publication time.
The antagonism between government and NMG notwithstanding, the leadership at NMG argue that even with their critical stance and resolve to speak truth to power, the media entity still makes discretionary considerations to censor certain stories.
“There are questions that you need to ask yourself when you come across bits and pieces of information. There is already some element of journalistic integrity. An element of ‘Okay, these things are better left unsaid’,” Nsibirwa said last year.
