On Tuesday, July 28, 2026, the Nation Media Group (NMG), through its official social media handles, announced that its outlets would resume operations.
The following day, I switched on my television set to watch the evening news of NTV- Uganda, and sadly the screen was still blank. Lest we forget, the premises of Daily Monitor, KFM, Spark TV and NTV – outlets belonging to NMG – were cordoned off by security operatives on June 28, 2026, on accusations of what the state called biased reporting.
However, my thoughts immediately reminisced the good old days of NTV evening news segment dubbed ‘Akawungezi’ that routinely broadcasts interesting macro and micro national stories, social and political commentaries, international breaking news and Zungululu, a comic segment that leaves viewers laughing.
In between, I also remembered one story of an evicted family whose ancestral land was grabbed by a top public servant. When NTV aired the story, the lands minister intervened, advising the judiciary to reinstate land rights to the legitimate owners.
This is just one of many stories that the free media aired while executing its core mandate of driving public discourse and dispensing reliable information.
The moral lesson here is: Broadcasters and publications aligned to independent media across the world are a voice of the most marginalised individuals and vulnerable groups that have no audience, resources and means to fight for their human dignity, constitutional and fundamental rights and freedoms.
This is the beauty about independent media. It can even hold the armed and most powerful to account, thereby delivering fairness, justice, equity and equality in society.
Unfortunately, the free, bold and independent media that gives a voice to thousands of marginalised communities and voiceless individuals is under attack. Regardless of NMG’s resumption of operations, the fact is it may cease to hold power to account as it used before forced closure.
The unfortunate action of attempting to silence one of the boldest independent media in East Africa is an act of suppression of press freedoms. When independent voices are silenced, who are the losers?
And what happens after the voice of the voiceless is silenced? During the World Press Freedom Day 2026, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez, said: “When journalists are silenced, we all lose our voice.
The successful attempt to silence independent publications and broadcasters has far reaching consequences to daily businesses, governance, civic space, democracy, and ordinary citizens. It’s normally the courageous non-state journalists who report on electoral malpractices, investigate environmental degradation, scrutinize business operations, expose corruption scandals, document atrocities and photograph human rights violations.
Unfortunately, courageous journalism has become unsafe, dangerous and an insecure profession. A case in point: a number of professional journalists and citizen journalists have been brutally beaten and tear-gassed on the frontline, abducted from offices, stalked, compromised and dismissed from duty.
According to United Nations Human Rights Agency report 2025 on press freedoms, about 500 citizen journalists are behind bars, 300 journalists and media workers are still detained, while 300 journalists have been killed since October 2023.
The Press Council of South Africa reported that “80 per cent of journalists in Africa face worsening media conditions due to political interference and struggling newsrooms, while it also stated that in 180 countries close to 112 are witnessing a decline in press freedom as of year 2025.
I pose my question again, when the voice of voiceless is silenced! who is at loss? Everyone loses from government institutions, civil societies to businesses, but more specifically it is the citizens who lose most. Without independent media, citizens are denied a voice, access to information when uncensored truth is negotiated and facts are traded off like a commodity.
When independent media is silenced, it paves way for inequalities, injustices and authoritarianism. Without independent media, violence becomes untamed and injustices escalate in the absence of a guardian of justice and an equal world for all.
Without independent media, society is not able to differentiate between facts from fiction, especially in this age of social media and artificial intelligence where uncensored misinformation and disinformation is spreading like wildfire.
Without independent media, democracy becomes an illusion, certainly because silencing courageous journalism limits citizens participation and freedom of expression while electoral malpractices easily continue unabated, thus crippling the most critical tenets of democracy.
Independent media offers a platform for political talk shows, public dialogues and constructive debates that nurture democracy, social cohesion, co-existence and tolerance. Governments can also lose out on constructive criticism.
For instance, when independent media uncovers truth about failed healthcare and infrastructures, or provides civic space for diverse perspectives or makes an alarm on businesses evading taxes, it enables the government authorities to intervene for investigations and strengthens prevention mechanisms.
Independent media is the oxygen of a free and open society for all, and therefore the idea of silencing it is wrong.
The writer is an advocate of press freedoms and sustainable development.