Police in Uganda have raided the offices of the "Daily Monitor" and disabled its printing press after the paper printed a letter which suggested the country's President Yoweri Museveni was grooming his son for power.
Police also shut down two radio stations owned by the same media company, according to the BBC. A senior correspondent working for the Daily Monitor reportedly stated that the Ugandan police consider the premises of the publication to be a crime scene.
The raids on the Daily Monitor and a second newspaper, The Red Pepper, came after both newspapers printed a leaked confidential memo. Around 50 armed policemen took part in the search of the premises of both newspapers.
Police authorities obtained a court order telling the journalists to name their source, and also authorizing police to search for a letter written by the general that is held in the publication's offices.
The Daily Monitor described today's police raid and closure of its operations, including the newspaper and its radio stations, KFM and Dembe FM, as a "gross disregard of Ugandan law and the violation of [its] constitutional right," according to the Observer.
In a statement, the company's management accused the police of abusing a search warrant to close down its media operations.
"Instead of carrying out the search, the armed men disabled the printing press, computer servers and radio transmission equipment."
The police also raided and cordoned off the Red Pepper offices in Namanve. The intention was to prevent the Monitor from operating broadcasting and printing its newspapers.
"We are horrified by this act, which is a gross disregard of Ugandan Law and a violation of The Monitor's constitutional right, said Mr. Alex Asiimwe, The MPL Managing Director. "This matter is in court and management has contested the demand by the police for us to disclose the source of the story, and the matter is yet to be decided."
He added: "It is particularly perturbing that the police ordered our operations shut down under the pretext of carrying out a search. It is unacceptable that our business should be crippled on a dispute which should be settled in court."
