Parliament has been told it cannot take over a Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) frequency, 98.0 but can use the broadcasters station to run its own content.
According to communications regulator, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), parliament can produce the programs, and then UBC's Red Channel station will host the programs. The station will be made to become an exclusive channel for parliament. Early last month, MPs were told that parliament had finally acquired a frequency to run its own radio station.
UCC had given parliament UBC's 98.0 frequency to communicate the business of the House and was expected to cover several parts of the country. However, this has now changed after UCC said the frequency cannot be given out to parliament, but a partnership worked out between the two government institutions.
It has now been established that parliament will only be generating the content that will be hosted by UBC. According to UCC executive director Godfrey Mutabazi, parliament has previously been running its programs through UBC, and they see no reason as to why this arrangement should not continue.
Mutabazi says parliament can still work with their own studio, but they will have to send their content to UBC to broadcast parliament programs. He said it's a technical issue because the 98.0 frequency cannot be fragmented from the UBC system which was originally designed to work together and not having it operate independently.
Asked about the independence of Parliament Radio, Mutabazi said parliament content will not be interrupted and there is no need to worry about independence of the radio.
"This is a technical matter, there is no frequency here in Kampala. They [parliament] will run on this [UBC] station and there will be no problem. The program will run uninterrupted." said Mutabazi.
UCC's director cooperate affairs Fred Otunnu says initially the frequency was identified, and there was a process to give the frequency to parliament, but UBC made a case about the nature of that frequency and how it cannot be given out. He says based on technical challenges, parliament cannot run a radio independently.
"Technically it is not possible for it to run independently, there are technical issues which were raised by UBC based on that frequency and other frequencies and the mode by which it transmits. So the proposal going forward is that; content can be developed, generated by parliament and transmitted to UBC to run on that channel. It will be UBC property but the program on that channel will be exclusively parliament's on that channel." said Otunnu.
UBC managing director Winston Agaba says that they hope that they can co-host the radio with parliament. He says discussions are still ongoing with parliament and UCC, and hopefully they will come to a conclusion. Asked if the arrangement will be through a studio to transmitter link (STL) from parliament to a UBC link, Agaba says all these things are yet to be discussed.
"Parliament will bring the content as and when they have it [and] UBC will run it. That's what we are looking at as ideal, as you know some times parliament is in recess, so what will be happen in that kind of period." Agaba questioned.
Both UCC, and UBC could not say if parliament will have to pay for using UBC's frequency and broadcast space. When contacted, the deputy director of communications and public affairs, Hellen Kaweesa said that she does not know at what stage the negotiations had reached.
A source within parliament's communication department who is not allowed to speak to the press, said he does not think that the UBC arrangement will work since parliament's idea was to have its own radio. Parliament's proposed radio was meant to operate within the precincts of parliament, where the transmitter is stationed.
According to sources in parliament, although they wanted a 3kW transmitter, UCC restricted the power to 1kW. UCC argued that the FM band in the central region is already congested. There are over 200 radio stations registered to operate in Uganda.
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