The Parliament has ordered Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) to give and renew operating licenses to a number of media houses, arguing that denial to do give out licenses is costing the country revenue from license fees.
The issue came up during the scrutiny of the 2018/2019 National Budget Framework paper on Tuesday after media operators petitioned Parliament, saying that UCC had denied them operational licenses for unknown reasons.
The MPs noted that some of the unlicensed media organizations are transacting business with government, a thing they raises accountability questions towards public institutions that transact business with the media companies in question.
In its report to Parliament, the Budget Committee called on UCC to publish licenses of all media houses so that government institutions can only deal with duly licensed companies, saying this will boost government revenues.
It is important to note that the Auditor General’s report for 2017 called on Government to review the contract of Digital Migration, which Policy was overseen by UCC.
The report reveals that whereas the main objective of digital migration policy was to ensure that the whole country was covered by digital signal by June 2015, the digital network only covers Central, greater Kampala and 17 districts. UCC is headed by Godfrey Mutabazi as Executive Director.
