NTV Uganda and Spark TV were forced off air early Sunday following an overnight security operation at Nation Media Group (NMG) Uganda premises in Kampala, hours after Chief of Defence Forces Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba announced on X that the broadcaster and the Daily Monitor had been shut down.
Viewers tuning into both television stations were met with blank screens displaying a “Video unavailable” message after the channels were taken off air at around 5:00 a.m.
The development came after armed security personnel surrounded NMG’s headquarters in Namuwongo and its Serena Hotel offices, with staff reporting that no one was being allowed to enter or leave the premises.
In a series of posts published shortly after 1:00 a.m., Gen. Muhoozi declared that “NTV and Monitor are being shut down from today” and later added that the two media outlets would not reopen without his permission.
He also wrote that he did not believe in a free press, saying the media should instead be guided by “cadres of the revolution.”
The remarks followed nearly a week of public threats against Nation Media Group, during which he repeatedly said he was awaiting authorization from President Yoweri Museveni before taking action.
Nation Media Group Uganda owns NTV Uganda, Spark TV, the Daily Monitor, KFM, Dembe FM, Ennyanda and several other media platforms.
During the security operation, KFM and Dembe FM also briefly went off air, although no official explanation was immediately provided.
Earlier in the morning, NTV Uganda had continued broadcasting an Al Jazeera simulcast despite the security deployment before its signal was eventually cut.
By Sunday morning, neither the Uganda People’s Defence Forces, the Uganda Police Force nor the Uganda Communications Commission had issued a formal statement explaining the security deployment or citing the legal basis for taking the television stations off air. Nation Media Group had also not released an official statement by the time of publication.
The shutdown marks the latest confrontation between the Ugandan state and Nation Media Group. In 2013, police sealed off the Daily Monitor, KFM and Dembe FM after the newspaper published a letter linked to the alleged “Muhoozi Project,” forcing the media house to suspend operations for more than a week. NTV Uganda was also temporarily forced off air in 2007, shortly after its launch, over a dispute related to its news coverage.
Time will tell
Personally i cannot judge anyone about what’s going on because The Creator or the controller of our nation Uganda (God) himself knows and He’s seeing everything which’s in His nation👍👍….I just want to encourage all the citizens of Uganda to always be on our knees praying for our country… because it’s the only thing we can do🤗🤗