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 When NTV Uganda started its television broadcasts on 18 December 2006, viewers in Kampala were offered a new choice of documentaries and news bulletins in both Luganda and English.
Five weeks later the channel disappeared from the television screens, shut down by the Uganda Broadcast Council. After more than two months, efforts to get NTV back on the airwaves have so far failed. On 3 April, the House of the Uganda Parliament overwhelming voted to order the Broadcast Council to allow the channel to broadcast. The Broadcast Council has yet to respond. Uganda has a limited media scene. There are only two newspapers, New Vision, owned by the government, and The Monitor, owned by the Nation Media Group headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. In addition to the two television channels, several smaller channels broadcast religious programs or music. The radio sector is more crowded, but most stay away from news and current affairs programs lest they incur the wrath of the government. The Monitor’s relationship with the government is contentious because the paper is considered anti-government. In the summer of 2006 during meetings with a key media advisor to the president, the editor of The Monitor, Conrad Ncutu, was accused of “disrespecting” the president. NTV is owned by the Nation Media Group, whose largest shareholder is the Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Ismaili Moslems, and perhaps the biggest single investor in Uganda through hotels, media, power plants, insurance and schools. The station cost more than $4,000,000 to build and is perhaps the most modern and technologically-advanced television operation in East Africa. In May 2005 when NTV, incorporated as Africa Broadcasting (Uganda) Limited (ABUL), applied for a license to the Broadcast Council, it was told there was a “moratorium” on licenses. Eventually a license was issued. ABUL commissioned the construction of the station and put out a newspaper advertisement for staff.  Staff in the NTV newsroom When the license was issued, it contained a condition that the transmitter and antenna be installed at a location where the state broadcaster owns the only towers. The Broadcast Council then presented NTV with a list of conditions that it wanted attached to the license, including the right of the government to demand access to broadcast on the channel at any time and for any reason. On December 18, NTV switched on its signal and began broadcasting, some two months after its anticipated launch. Six days later the microwave link that connects the broadcast operations to the tower was vandalised. NTV says the only people with access to the tower were government employees or members of the TV station. A week later, the Broadcast Council claimed that the owner of the transmission tower, the state broadcaster, had not complied with technical requirements for the mast and ordered the state broadcaster to shut down NTV, although it did nothing about the other seven companies transmitting from the same tower. Nation Media Group says it will fight for as long as it takes to get the channel on the air, however, so far, only Parliament has tried to come to its rescue. While this continues, staff of NTV go about the business of preparing to broadcast, covering the news, making documentaries and, in effect, pretending all is about to go on air. But, for now, the signal stays inside the NTV building.
Kenneth Tiven helps organise new television channels and train staff. He spent more than 40 years in the newspaper and television industry, including a long stint as vice-president for television systems and new channels at CNN. The Uganda channel is the 23rd channel he has helped launch.
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