NTV Uganda and Spark TV have been switched off air early Sunday morning, on the orders of first son and Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
The shut down came hours after armed security personnel surrounded the offices of Nation Media Group (NMG) at Kampala Serena Hotel and Namuwongo.
Staff inside the compound reported that no one was being allowed to enter or leave during the operation.
The deployment followed a series of posts by Gen Muhoozi on X, in which he announced that NTV Uganda and the Daily Monitor would be shut down.
“NTV and Monitor are being shut down from today!” Gen Muhoozi posted.
In a subsequent post, he added; “Both NTV and Monitor will not re-open without my permission.”
Viewers were on Sunday morning met with blank screens reading “video unavailable,” while the fate of the Daily Monitor newspaper, also named in Gen. Muhoozi’s threats remains uncertain.
The posts marked an escalation of threats made over the preceding week, during which the CDF warned that he was awaiting his father’s permission to act against the media house, which employs hundreds of staff.
NMG Uganda owns a number of media outlets whuch include NTV Uganda, the Daily Monitor, The East African, Spark TV, 93.3 KFM, 90.4 Dembe FM, the Ennyanda newspaper and the Nation Courier.
By the time if this publication, neither Police or the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), had issued a statement on the switch off.
