Fascism comes by the creep
It is article 29 in Uganda’s constitution from 1995 that guarantees the freedom of expression and press but I feel the creeping hand of fascism. Part of this confusion results from the personalized way in which our country is run – nothing of significance happens without the “Big man”, I mean the president’s personal involvement.
Thus, when the president has been in good mood or on top of public debate, he has allowed and defended a high degree of free debate. Yet whenever he has felt threatened, he has not hesitated to unleash the wrath of the state on anyone who dares challenge him. Thus, over the years, critical voices in our media have been systematically eliminated or threatened – some through bribery using state patronage.
Recently the government and its apparatchik launched a frontal assault on independent media. They shut down five FM stations for “telling lies” (never mind it is the president who judges what is true and what is false), for “insulting the president” (it is the President who calls his predecessors swine and refers to journalists as vultures) and “inciting the public” (yet there is evidence of government inciting one ethnic group against another). Then government demanded and media owners accepted to suspend public debate on national issues. The government also demanded and media owners accepted to remove radio and television talk-show hosts whom the state objects to.
Now, in 2011 Uganda will go for a general election and I fear that independent media owners may make short-term compromises to safeguard their businesses. Although this may win them short-term survival advantage, it will certainly lead to their demise in the long term. A fascist system does not come by the gallop but by the creep. There will never be enough compromises to a regime that is rapidly losing legitimacy. Every day, it will demand more from the media owners and from journalists. 
Since diverse media, like we have in Uganda, can only thrive in a free environment, the consistent closure of this space with the acquiescence of media owners will lead to their door.
Since diverse media, like we have in Uganda, can only thrive in a free environment, the consistent closure of this space with the acquiescence of media owners will lead to their door.A democracy cannot exist when everyone works for themselves. It is through organized political expression of one’s interest that any group can engage the state in an effectively healthy confrontation to elicit concessions from it. Media owners and journalists and the wider intellectual class in Uganda need to close ranks and defend our liberty. Ruling NRM party leaders too should support efforts to defend our country from self destruction.
Otherwise our fate will best be captured in the words of Martin Niemöller, a German clergyman, in a poem criticizing German intellectuals for acquiescing to Adolf Hitler’s rule. “First they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist,” he wrote, “Then they came for the socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one to speak for me.”
Denis OlakaDep News Editor, Mega FM
Gulu, Uganda
