Richard and I are in the midst of relaunching the leading independent newspaper in Uganda, the Daily Monitor (motto: Truth Every Day) so we are probably unusual in that we are currently die-hard followers of the news that comes out of Kampala. Uganda is a haven for good, hard-hitting political journalism. Partially of course, this is because extraordinary events happen in East African with an unfortunate frequency (in the course of the three days that we were there last month Ebola was discovered and the opposition leader’s brother died of mysterious causes) but its mostly down to considered, serious-minded reporting that makes the most of relatively limited resources.

When I read the “exclusive” PLOT TO KILL QUEEN FOILED splash in the Sunday Express yesterday I recognised a story that was originally broken — on December 1st — in Uganda by one of the many talented reporters at the Monitor.

What surprised me about this wasn’t that it was in The Express, given their obsession with royalty but that it took all of six weeks to percolate through the web to the Express newroom and that when they did get the story they didn’t do it better.

Once this was understandable: there simply weren’t the resources (or the patience) to wade through the reams of newsprint produced all over the world. But now the internet makes it simple to get a local perspective and to take advantage of experienced reporters on the ground.

If you read the Monitor’s version, it is filled with detail and context that the Express story misses. Its also instructive to know, given Uganda’s worsening media freedoms (see Roy Greenslade’s post), that the Monitor’s rival, New Vision, which is majority-owned but not run by government, didn’t (as far as I can see) print the story until yesterday following the Express’ lead.

Australian Sky News and the Herald Sun have both picked up the story as has the Telegraph website this morning.

Not one has credited the Daily Monitor.

Entry Filed under: Newspapers, Websites