UGANDA'S Broadcasting Council has opened the city-based Radio Two closed seven weeks ago for allegedly inciting the violent September riots, writes Tabyu Butagira in the Monitor.
Mr Godfrey Mutabazi, chairman of the Broadcasting Council, says the management of the station acknowledges gravity of “the matter at hand and apologised for the misconduct of their staffâ€ÂÂ.
“[They] have, in addition, undertaken to comply with the minimum broadcasting standards and more generally, the Electronic Media Act,†he says.
No detail of the behind-the-scene deal is available yet.
At the height of the September 10-12 pro-Buganda kingdom civil unrest, the central government launched a massive clampdown particularly on broadcasters, suspending journalists and shutting programmes deemed too critical or inflammatory.
Police say at least 27 people died in the riots, mainly from gunshot wounds. Government maintains officials at Mengo, the seat of Buganda kingdom, instigated the bloody protests in and around Kampala.
The Uganda Media Centre separately announces that Radio Two (Kaboozi Ku Biri) got back on air immediately after the Broadcasting Council cleared it to operate following the earlier suspension. The radio presenters had been indicted by the State for offending the minimum broadcasting standards.
This means only Radio Suubi and the Buganda kingdom-owned Central Broadcasting Station (CBS) remain shut after authorities allowed the Catholic-owned Radio Sapientia back on air shortly after its closure in September.
