What Monitor closure means for investment
David Ouma Balikowa
Two weeks after government shut down The Monitor for a week, the act
continues to generate debate both at home and abroad.
Questions and expressions of disbelief continue to be raised. Prominent
publications and broadcast stations in the United States and Europe that had
not carried anything on Uganda in the recent past hurried to bring The
Monitor shutdown to their audiences.
The concerns range from issues of freedoms of the media, expression to
democracy. But this time round, an unusual question is being raised -- the
safety of investments in Uganda. People would want to be re-assured that
their businesses would not suffer a similar shut down as happened to The
Monitor.
Besides simply writing news, journalists serve as reference points to people
seeking to invest or visit Uganda. Potential foreign investors do not stop
at headlines based on rosy information from bodies like Uganda Investment
Authority (UIA). They always approach journalists to get more detailed
information about the investment climate.
Many editors and journalists at The Monitor have always encouraged such
investors to Uganda. They often use the success story of their own company
to drive the point home. While shutting down The Monitor, government seems
to have made their first thought their only one. As it usually happens, they
did not stop to ask for proper direction.
In their quick estimate, they thought the shut down would hurt the bosses at
The Monitor. The Monitor does business with companies abroad; South Africa,
United States, Germany, India, UK, China, etc. The shut down sent the blunt
message that trading with Uganda is very risky business.
In the recent decade, I have visited many developed countries. While there,
I have met investors wishing to do business in Uganda. Many of them keep in
touch regularly for updates on the Ugandan situation.
After The Monitor shutdown, I�m not too sure what to tell them.
In other words, what the UIA spent years trying to achieve by projecting
Uganda as a safe investment area was undermined by the extra-judicial act of
shutting down The Monitor.
People will be asking how they would be treated in case of any problems if
government could take such a hasty action against The Monitor.
The international community must have learnt hard lessons from Robert
Mugabe�s Zimbabwe. When he began raiding opposition offices, killing and
jailing them, the international community looked the other side, thinking it
would end there.
Then he began raiding media houses and shutting them down. Others got the
warning signal but still thought �after all, it does not affect us�.
But when he started seizing private property and businesses, they realised
the folly of having kept quiet when the opposition and media were being
raided and gagged. They too were not safe anymore.
In most societies, sanctions against the media provide the best measure of
the government�s restraint levels. A government that shuts a newspaper down
outside the legal procedure will wake up and grab, nationalise or shut down
any other business. We have seen it happen in Uganda in the past and the
recent act against The Monitor is a rude reminder that all is not yet well.
A few years ago, The Monitor won an award as the best investor of the year
in the medium category. The firm may not have that big financial muscle, but
the fact that it is one of the big employers in the country cannot be
denied.
How many companies local and foreign started in the last ten years employ
300 people, not to mention the several hundreds of newspaper agents and
vendors all over the country? Countable.
Another 300,000 readers depend on it for information, just as big companies
do for advertising. The shutdown of The Monitor did affect all of them and
their businesses.
Which is why in civilised societies great attempt is made to separate the
individuals from the companies they run or work for. The government could
have taken legal action against individuals in The Monitor without having to
shut down the company.
If the shutdown of The Monitor sent distress signals across the continent
and beyond, it was for a reason:
The Monitor has been one of the few successful stories in Uganda, Africa and
the developing world. A number of new publications on the continent were not
only inspired by its success story -- they copied its name too.
Those that have traveled in countries like Ethiopia must have seen their
version of The Monitor looking exactly like the Ugandan Monitor.
Black Thursday, October 10 threatened to put the candles out for that great
Ugandan inspiration to the rest of the developing world.
I find a lot of inspiration in the words of the Prince Charles of Wales
while speaking at the 300th anniversary of the United Kingdom�s first
newspaper, Daily Courant at Fleet Street in March this year.
�From time to time you get things wrong � everyone does. But most of the
time you are seeking to keep the public informed about developments in
society, to scrutinize those who hold or seek positions of influence, to
uncover wrongdoing at national level, in business or in local communities,
to prick the propensity of the overbearing, and � a point often forgotten �
to entertain us.�
October 25, 2002 00:47:03
_________________________________________________________________
Internet access plans that fit your lifestyle -- join MSN.
http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp
