‘That opposition paper’ is back in business

At press conferences earlier this year, President Museveni sometimes referred to the Daily Monitor as “that opposition paper.” It is therefore plausible that he used the Gen. David Sejusa letter as an excuse to shut down and punish the newspaper financially.

As I wrote in Think Africa Press, this intimidation seemed to work for a few days, as the newspaper backed off from controversial stories. But now it seems like the independent paper is back in business. The last few issues have been full of stories critical of the regime.

There were two articles about political opposition:

“Museveni says teargas has silenced Besigye”

“Museveni address deceptive – Muntu”

And one article about the OPM fraud scandal. The Daily Monitor broke this story but has since been warned by the government not to report on it:

“Leaked OPM report pins government officials”

There is even one article on the arrest of Gen. David Sejusa’s aides. It doesn’t mention the dozens of other suspected arrests of people close to the general or speculations that the general might have been plotting a coup:

“Sejusa aides denied freedom” 

Finally, the front page today ran a story that might have been too critical, as the EU ambassador later accused the Monitor of twisting his words and making a sensational headline:

“European Union diplomat attacks Museveni over graft”

Here’s the EU’s “clarification” in response to the story: “European Union delegation reacts to Daily Monitor headline”