TV licence plan turns off Ugandans

Some viewers find Uganda TV uninspiring

Television viewers in Uganda are up in arms after the government announced it is introducing a licence fee to help fund the country's government-owned television service, Uganda TV.

The plan is to collect an annual charge of 10,000 shillings ($5) per television set, starting later this year.

Information Minister Nsaba Buturo says it is essential, as the government is looking at the best way in which to collect revenue from Uganda's estimated one million television set owners.

Since the announcement, Uganda's main newspapers have been overwhelmingly critical, with the state-owned New Vision describing the idea as "an unmitigated wild goose chase".

'Military juntas'

"10K for repeats of Inspector Derrick?", asks the independent Monitor incredulously.

The paper contends that in Britain and South Africa the TV licence is used to support public service broadcasting, while Uganda TV (UTV) and Radio Uganda are government broadcasters that are "unashamedly subservient to the interests of ruling parties or military juntas".

"UTV remains an electronic bulletin board for officialdom. It spends a disproportionate amount of time on the activities of government officials, and all sorts of endless (and sometimes useless) workshops," it writes.

An article in New Vision agrees: "The assertion that since TV sets are taxed in some countries... the same system can work in Uganda is too far-fetched to convince even a baby," it says.

Besides, the paper adds, both broadcasters compete for commercial advertising and therefore "should not be eligible for subsidy through a television licence fee".

Daylight robbery

In a public poll run by the paper's website, members of the public generally come out strongly against the idea.

"Whoever planned to introduce the TV tax wanted the surest way of robbing Ugandans in broad daylight," says one reader.

"Mere exploitation of the public," says another.

The New Vision believes that the government's plan is "by any stretch of the imagination, unworkable".

The paper says that although a law providing for a TV licence has existed for over three decades, it has never been implemented because it is not practical.

It suggests that if government is worried about making UTV and Radio Uganda commercially viable, the best way forward is to give them autonomous status.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.