By Mulengera Reporters
The UCC Executive Director Nyombi Thembo this Thursday hosted hundreds of media executives from across the country to whom he read out the riot Act. The UCC Supremo asserted that time had come to crack the whip and real hard against publishers and promoters of disinformation, hate speech and fake news in the country.
That all regulatory efforts by UCC, which by law is mandated to regulate especially online media platforms, haven’t yielded the desired outcomes which is why regulatory enforcement operations are going to be escalated-with security agencies like the army, Police etc getting involved more directly to help UCC do its work especially as the country counts down to 2026 elections.
Whereas UCC has previously and all along been doing this alone as the regulator, Nyombi Thembo said time had come for the security agencies of the country to begin getting involved to strengthen the UCC’s regulatory hand. This means that UCC’s regulatory enforcement officers will be going out in the field for enforcement operations with security agency operatives. 
There are some online news operators whose addresses even UCC doesn’t know because they aren’t licensed or regulated by them yet they are daily out there churning out inflammatory content which Thembo says can lit fires and spark off the Rwanda-like genocide.
The UCC boss declared that disinformation and hate speech had become a security threat and not a mere regulatory concern anymore, which is why UCC is now justified to accept operational support and backup from security agencies to identify and hunt down those operating underground, without being licensed media operators, yet they are causing a lot of havoc.
He said that UCC has a duty to protect the national interest and the general public against being exposed to harmful, false and inciteful content. That when Uganda burns, as a result of disinformation and hate speech, there will be no winners.
He said that going forward, the regulatory sanctions being handed out by UCC will be more severe than has been the case and penalties stricter. That all online media operators (including those operating news websites, TikTok, youtube channels etc) will have to be severely punished for operating without registration, licensing and authorisation by UCC.
Security agencies are going to become more involved in investigating and prosecuting those who breach minimum regulatory requirements. Public awareness campaigns too are going to be undertaken to sensitize the ordinary Ugandans on what amounts to hate speech, disinformation etc. Every citizens has a right to know what amounts to hate speech and subsequently be duty-bound to report the same when he or she comes across it anywhere online.
He said time had come for the GoU not to tolerate production, creation and spread of any harmful content because the same threatens national cohesion, security and democratic stability. Saying ‘it won’t be business as anymore,’ Thembo implored all media operators to embrace ethical journalism, which is balanced and unbiased while respecting national institutions of the Ugandan state and public interest. 
Nyombi Thembo addressed a large audience that comprised of uniformed UPDF and UPF officers and men plus mainstream media owners like Pastors Peter Ssematimba, Joseph Sserwadda, David Kiganda and hundreds of others from upcountry and Kampala itself.
Minister Balaam Barugahara was there too and delivered a message on behalf of government officials including Gen MK the CDF who he said had been aggrieved by the extent to which hate speech, spread especially online, had deeply become entrenched in Uganda.
Government officials basically Thembo, Balaam and KMP Police’s Luke Owesigyire spoke and only allowed media sector leaders namely NAB’s Kin Kariisa, Innocent Nahabwe, Andrew Irumba and Giles Muhame to speak back for and on behalf of their fellow media owners and managers present. There was also a gentleman who represented media owners operating in the rural Ugandan countryside upcountry. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
