Africa-Press – Uganda. The outgoing chairperson of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has tasked the government to license and regulate online broadcasters if misinformation is to be addressed.
Addressing members at the NAB 24th annual general meeting held in Kampala, Dr Kin Karisa said vloggers are now able to get commercial advertising and encroach on media incomes, yet they are not paying any tax.
“We have a big problem with misinformation from online blogger channels. They wake up every day and abuse people, but they advertise and encroach on media wallets even without a licence,” he noted.
In October 2020, the government announced that all persons offering or planning to commence the provision of online data communication and broadcasting services including vlogs, blogs, online televisions, radios, and audio over IP (AoIP), among others, had to obtain authorisation from the national regulator, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), before providing such services to the public.
Ms Julianne Mweheire, the director for industry affairs, and content development at UCC, said they will have to first regulate the content vloggers put forward in their online broadcasts as the Commission seeks to address the sustainability of mainstream media.
“We need to control what is on those airwaves, we cannot have a situation where all these big advertisers have recognised that rather than going to an international or Ugandan platform that used to carry them, they can now pay three individuals and get over a million followers who are not regulated with absolutely no standards that they follow, but because they reach a certain critical mass. I think for us, this is not acceptable,” Ms Mweheire said.
She noted that the broadcasting sector alone covers close to 90 percent of the population and that as a commission they are now defining a mainstream media broadcaster as per the kind of content they carry, and the size of reach that they serve.
Mr Sula Buyondo, who runs a YouTube channel, said the payment from international online content providers is that for every 1,000 views, $1 is paid.
He said as regards regulation, “UCC can only regulate advertising on social media locally but with YouTube it’s controlled by Google LLC in the USA and 13 percent international tax is already in place by YouTube”.
Mainstream media operate under the Uganda Communications Act, 2013 of which Article 41 (1a &b) mandates the Commission to suspend and revoke the operating licence of any media house on the grounds of serious and repeated breach of the licence conditions, and any fraud or intentional misrepresentation by the operator.
The minister for ICT and National Guidance, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, said said that given the increasing numbers of online broadcasters there is need for regulation.
“The online is flourishing so that calls for regulation. The industry (online) has advanced and that calls for us to look [into] policies and the legislations [to regulate it] because the actors have [increased].”
Meanwhile the meeting saw the election of Dr Innocent Nahabwe as new chairperson. Also, on the new NAB executive is Mr Joseph Kigozi, the vice chairperson, and Mr Joseph Beyanga, the head of radio at Nation Media Group-Uganda who retained the position as secretary general.
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