Ugandan police shut down media

Ugandan police shut down public radio stations and stormed the offices of a major newspaper Monday in response to a political scandal, editors said. The Ugandan Daily Monitor reports that detectives forced at least two radio stations off the air and seized the newspaper's printing presses Monday. Alex Asiimwe, managing director of Monitor Publications Ltd., the newspaper's parent company, said there was a state of confusion surrounding the crackdown. "We are seeing policemen wielding guns but no one is giving us a communication on what is happening," he was quoted by the Monitor's online service as saying. Longtime President Yoweri Museveni is apparently grooming his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, to be his predecessor. The Daily Monitor published a letter from a top military general that asks for an inquiry into reports that orders were given to assassinate anyhow who stated their opposition to Kainerugaba. "Security sources say the state is cracking the whip over the media's reporting of the frenzy surrounding President Museveni's son Muhoozi Kainerugaba's prospects for president, dubbed by Coordinator of Intelligence Services Gen. David Sejusa as the Muhoozi Project," the Daily Monitor reports. The editors of the Monitor wrote that the government should keep in mind that in the digital age of news reporting, "It is impossible to silence criticism by attacking radios and newspapers." Ugandan forces were accused of using indiscriminate force against protesters in May 2011.