President Museveni Planned Meeting with Nation Media Management Last Year but It Never Happened Due to Continued Hostility Against Government, Source Reveals

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni had planned to meet the management of Nation Media Group (NMG) Uganda last December, but the meeting never took place due to what the government sources describe as the media house’s continued hostile reporting against the government.

Nation Media Group Uganda owns and operates Daily Monitor, NTV Uganda, Spark TV, Dembe FM, and KFM.

According to a senior government official, President Museveni had on several occasions expressed interest in engaging the media house’s leadership to discuss ways of improving its working relationship with the government through what the official described as balanced and constructive reporting.

“The President has always wanted to make things right. That is why he has occasionally castigated them over what he considers negative reporting. Instead of changing, however, they only made it worse,” the source said.

“When it comes to covering government activities, they often allocate only a minute, yet they give the opposition more than 10 minutes. Is that proper?” the official added.

President Museveni has, on several occasions, publicly described the Daily Monitor as biased and, at times, referred to it as an “enemy of the state.”

Through public rallies, national addresses, and media appearances, he has repeatedly criticized the newspaper’s editorial stance, accusing it of promoting foreign interests and maintaining unfair bias against his government.

On December 27, 2025, Museveni reportedly wrote to Nation Media Group Uganda Managing Director Susan Nsibirwa, informing her that he had directed his Principal Private Secretary to organize a meeting between them. The letter came during the 2025 presidential campaign period.

“I have seen your letter dated 8th November, 2025, requesting permission for your journalists to cover our activities. It is true that I am aware of the ban on your journalists. This is on account of the hostility and neo-colonial positions of your publication,” the President wrote.

“I can meet you and tell you all this myself,” he added.

Uganda’s media landscape was thrown into unprecedented turmoil on Sunday, June 28, 2026, after heavily armed security personnel conducted an overnight operation at Nation Media Group Uganda’s headquarters. The operation forced major television and radio stations off air and disrupted newspaper production.

The security operation followed a series of late-night posts on X (formerly Twitter) by the Chief of Defence Forces and First Son, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who claimed responsibility for the media shutdown.

“Mzee [President Museveni] has approved my plan to close both NTV and Monitor. We are moving immediately!” Muhoozi posted.

The army chief, who is well known for his outspoken social media presence, said the decision was prompted by what he described as “bad stories” targeting Uganda’s political and security leadership.

However, veteran journalist and political commentator Andrew Mwenda later revealed that he had held discussions with Gen. Muhoozi and that they had agreed to reopen Daily Monitor and NTV Uganda after first engaging the management of the two sister companies.

“I have just held discussions with Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba and we, as leaders of PLU, have agreed that we shall reopen both Daily Monitor and NTV soon. However, we shall first have discussions with the management of both sister companies,” Mwenda said.

Gen. Muhoozi later confirmed that discussions were underway, posting: “…we are having discussions with our allies in the UK and Europe about re-opening both NTV and Daily Monitor. We shall take the results of these discussions to Mzee for final approval.”

The Management of Nation Media confirmed receipt of the Presidential letter and noted that the incident came at a time when they are still waiting for the meeting to happen.

By the time of publication, efforts by this publication to obtain a comment from government communications officials had been unsuccessful.

 

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