It is now a week since Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) switched off all tvs that have not yet migrated to the digital platform, rendering a number of campusers especially those on holiday bored to death. Now news emerging from our well-placed source indicates that a law student at Makerere University has sued UCC in relation to digital migration.
Saasi Marvin, a 2nd year law student and a writer here at Campusbee, has brought 12 separate lawsuits against UCC over its failure to heed to a number of access to information requests that he submitted to them almost two months back concerning digital migration.
In one of his law suits, Marvin sent a request to UCC for information regarding SIGNET UGANDA’s capability to solely distribute the digital signal throughout Uganda and the reasons why UCC decided to adopt a policy of sole distributorship of the digital signal. This information, the student insists, would have proven that contrary to its obligation as per the Uganda Communications Act 2013, UCC had failed to enforce and ensure fair competition amongst the players in the communications sector during the digital migration process but instead promoted unequal treatment, something that is unconstitutional. Signet Uganda is the company that won sole distributorship rights for the digital signal, an occurence that was contested by a number of digital platforms.
In another suit, Marvin alleges that he submitted to UCC a request for information regarding the number of active tv sets in the country, the concentration of the active tv sets per district as well as the number of free to air decoders that had been imported into the country as at the end of April 2015 and the cost of each single decoder.
With this information, Marvin affirms that he would have been able to prove UCC not only lacked the most basic information it needed before effecting the digital migration deadline, but also failed to regulate rates and charges for communications services.
In addition, it would also prove UCC’s failure to monitor, inspect, license, supervise, control and regulate communications services and to ensure that the decoders are easily accessible and affordable by all people in the country. According to Marvin, all this shows that UCC was conducting the digital migration process in an illegal manner.
Not done yet, Marvin submitted another request for the records of the consultative meetings in regards to digital migration that UCC had with owners of tv stations as well as the consumers of tv services, and detailed information regarding the complaints that those stakeholders had raised. This information, says the student, would have proved that either UCC failed to consult these important stakeholders or failed to act upon their complaints which amounts to a violation of Article 28(1) of the constitution. With this state of affairs, the digital migration process being conducted by the UCC was clearly unlawful.
For those reasons and arguments above, Marvin seeks a court order directing UCC to release to him all the information asked for as it is obliged to do under the Access to Information Act, 2005. According to that Act, a public body like UCC is directed to release any public information in its possession when requested to do so by a citizen. According to a recently decided case, it does not matter whether the information requested for is online or for what reasons it is requested for. It requires the public body in question to deliver the information to the address indicated by the person seeking it.
The reasons why Marvin is seeking such information especially at a time when a good percentage of the country’s population is suffering a television blackout due to UCC’s switching off of the analog signals on Monday 15th June are best known to himself.
You must be logged in to post a comment.