ABSTRACT
The media system in Uganda is comprised of state-owned, privately owned, as well as media owned by cultural and religious institutions that provide the country with a vast array of print and broadcast platforms for expression. Such varied ownership regimes have inevitably presented opportunities but also challenges in media practice, causing persistent debate on how best to regulate the sector to ensure it is accountable to all parties in the polity. When clear media accountability mechanisms have not been agreed upon, the enduring standard ones have always been state-instituted laws and regulations. Yet, the tough regulatory regime applied to traditional media has not silenced alternative critical voices on social media as well as from Ugandans in the diaspora. Always playing catch up, the Ugandan state often responds to new communication dynamics accorded by novel technologies by crafting new laws, an example being the Computer Misuse Act in 2011 that has been used to curtail critical voices in cyberspace.
