Kampala slammed for 'media crackdown'

Uganda has launched a crackdown on independent media and the denial of a visa to a Canadian journalist is the latest example, a human rights body said on Tuesday.

The statement came as Uganda's Broadcasting Council ordered a local radio station off the air in Gulu in the north of the country, saying it had violated standards and was operating without a licence.

Blake Lambert, 34, who had lived in the east African country for three years and wrote for the Economist, was denied an entry visa on Thursday when he tried to return.

He was given no explanation but Uganda's government later called him a threat to national security, without elaborating.

"The government waited until the elections were over and most of the foreign press and observers had gone to kick out one of the few resident foreign journalists," said Jemera Rone, East Africa co-ordinator for Human Rights Watch (HRW).

"But government attempts to intimidate the media began before the elections," she added in a statement.

The authorities accused Lambert of "misrepresenting" Ugandan events and government sources said his critical style upset senior officials already unhappy with international coverage of the state's prosecution of opposition leader Kizza Besigye.

Lambert also wrote for newspapers including the Christian Science Monitor and Washington Times and was a radio correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Besigye lost polls on February 23 that extended President Yoweri Museveni's two-decade rule.