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https://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2020/08/when-uganda-registered-0-covid-19-cases.htmlREMINDER TO PROVIDERS OF ONLINE DATA COMMUNICATION AND BROADCASTING SERVICES TO OBTAIN AUTHORISATION
In accordance with sections 2, 5 and 27 of the Act and Regulation 5 of the Uganda Communications (Content) Regulations 2019, UCC is mandated to license, regulate and set standards for the provision of all communication services in Uganda, including radio communication and online broadcasting. Regulation of communication services is intended to promote and safeguard the interest of consumers, operators, viewers and listeners.
The purpose of this Public Notice, therefore, is to advise all persons currently offering or planning to commence the provision of online data communication and broadcasting services including but not limited to blogs, online televisions, online radios, online newspapers, audio over IP (AoIP), Internet Protocol TV (IPTV), Video on Demand (VoD), Digital Audio radios and televisions, internet/web radio and internet/web television, to obtain authorisation from UCC before providing such services to the public.
All persons engaged in the provision of the above services are accordingly advised to regularise their operations by obtaining the necessary authorisation from UCC by 5th of October 2020.
For further information on this matter, please contact UCC located at UCC House, Plot 42-44 Spring Road Bugolobi Kampala and all UCC regional offices.
Dated this 7th Day of September 2020
UGANDA COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
UCC House
Plot 42- 44 Spring Road, Bugolobi
- O. Box 7376, KAMPALA
Email: ucc@ucc.co.ug, Website: www.ucc.co.ug
Twitter: @UCC_Official Facebook: Uganda Communications Commission
Storm brews over UCC online and social media registration rules
By Benjamin Rukwengye
In March 2018, the governments of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, as if acting in tandem, issued new rules requiring the licensing of social media and online content creators.
Tanzania published its Electronic and Postal Communications (Online Content) Regulations, 2018, establishing mandatory licensing of all bloggers, online forums and online radio and television. The regulations that apply to Tanzania residents, Tanzanian citizens outside the country and non-citizens of Tanzania residing in the country, also impose strict rules on the content they produce.
Kenya followed in the same vein with its Film Classification Board requiring the licensing of people who post videos meant for public consumption, including videos posted on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms.
The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), which classifies online publishers, online news platforms and online radio and television operators as “data communication service providers”, issued a public notice the same month informing operators to apply to obtain authorization for their work. UCC said it would start enforcing the rules in April 2018 by sanctioning any non-compliant data communication service providers and where necessary, directing internet service providers to block access to unlicensed websites and streams.
The three East African countries are not alone in their attempts to regulate social media and online content. Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Zambia and a host of countries across the world have either debated or created legislation to regulate online spaces.
For most of these countries, the stated primary aim of social media regulation is to prevent potentially harmful practices such as hate speech, cyber-bulling and revenge porn, as well as to curb copyright infringement and the distribution of politically sensitive information. However for governments with records of abuse of rights to freedom of expression and freedom of information, these measures have been received with much suspicion and in some cases, fear.
In Uganda for instance, news this month that UCC is doubling down on its regulation of online publishers, which came shortly after university lecturer Stella Nyanzi was convicted for cyber harassment, was cause for alarm for many social media users. Adding to this consternation was information that the regulation would extend to “influencers on Ugandan social media and others with large commercialized online followings”. The influencers, according to UCC, will be mandated to pay a USD20 fee to operate.
Speaking to Reuters, UCC spokesperson Ibrahim Bbosa said online publishers and social media influencers are “pushing out content which could easily violate the known parameters of morality, of incitement, of ethnic prejudice or not be factual.”
In an interview with Voice of America, Bbosa said licensing social media influencers would not only help in establishing necessary controls, but also provide rules for those who use platforms like Facebook for commercial purposes.
“They actually disseminate information to wide audiences. The content they put out there is of importance, so we say they should register,” Bbosa told VOA.
Freedom of expression advocates have not taken the news lying down.
Catherine Anite, the Executive Director of Freedom of Expression Hub, told online news publisher PML Daily that the regulation was “restrictive.” She argued that as free and democratic society, Uganda should not introduce “clawback clauses that come in form of polices and other restrictive laws”.
Washington DC-based watchdog organisation, Freedom House, similarly raised a red flag, stating: “The UCC’s registration requirements, forcing many who publish online content to pay a yearly fee and register for monitoring purposes, are a clear infringement of Ugandans’ constitutionally protected rights to freedom of speech and expression.”
Jon Temin, director of Africa programs at Freedom House, said “requiring people to pay a fee to post on online platforms, as well as monitoring by the government, discourages online activity, stifles free expression, and creates new opportunities for government interference in citizens’ speech.”
Freedom House urged UCC to “abandon the restrictions imposed by the regulations, and to work to protect, rather than curtail, individual freedoms.”
Other activists contend that UCC’s regulations go against the spirit of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Charter on Broadcasting, the African Platform on Access to Information Declaration and the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms.
The African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedom states: Everyone has a right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds through the Internet and digital technologies and regardless of frontiers.”
It adds that: “The exercise of this right should not be subject to any restrictions, except those which are provided by law, pursue a legitimate aim as expressly listed under international human rights law (namely the rights or reputations of others, the protection of national security, or of public order, public health or morals) and are necessary and proportionate in pursuance of a legitimate aim.”
As the push-back by campaigners continues, the resolve of UCC to enforce its regulations grows.
A recent post on the UCC blog states that there is “a need for specific guidance on the regulation of online activities, and the protection thresholds of online communication.”
It adds that “given the limitation of traditional media policy and regulation with regard to social media our focus is more on the content that is transmitted over these platforms than the actual platform,” concluding that “any form of social media regulation must, as the Constitution of Uganda demands, balance both the individual right to freedom of expression vis a vis the human rights and freedoms of others, and the public interest.”
Public reaction
Some of the leading personalities in Uganda’s social media are adding their voices to the debate. They say both the licensing and fee are an attempted clamp down on government critics.
Bernard Olupot [@Beewol], says the idea of registering influencers and levying a tax on them is a quick way for the regime to “gag people and make money while at it. It is despotism, tyranny, abuse of human rights.”
For Pius Enywaru[@enywaru], a blogger and co-founder of Fastlane Media, UCC’s regulations are retrogressive. He says, “UCC hasn’t done much to create a good playing ground for influencers to do their work and it hasn’t been supportive.”
“It’s very unfair that UCC wants to ruin a promising avenue for employment for the youth even before it fully kicks off,” he adds.
Uganda’s government just made the Internet more expensive for online media practitioners
Influencers, publishers, and media platforms in Uganda are now required to pay a fee for posting their content online.
Despite drawing the first blood with a social media tax, the Ugandan government has not shied away from controversy and criticism as it carries on its charge on online activities.
Last year, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) made it mandatory for all online data communications service providers to register and acquire licenses that allow them to carry out their communication and commercial services online, although the move later stalled.
This time however, it’s looking like the Commission is not having second thoughts about enforcing it all.
The implication is that online publishers, and other Internet media operators (such as radio and television to begin with) will have to obtain a license that will cost $20 (74,012 Ugandan Shillings) to continue operation.
According to the commission’s head of public relations, this recent development stems from the need to curb the spread of fake news and violence.
“With the growing entity of online publishers, we realised it was important to register these individuals so they are mindful of the law and regulations as they publish their content to the public. As UCC, it is upon us to put into implementation these laws so that just in case of any problems that arise we are able to come up with resolutions,” he said.
About forty online publishers have reportedly registered and received licenses. But to others, yet to acquire publishing right or license as the case may be, the intention of the government is to limit their freedom of speech and censor what they are publishing.
All indications point in the direction of Ugandan government raking billions of revenue off online media practitioners in the country.