NTV, the television station owned by the Nation Media Group in Nairobi, Kenya, has the best lighting and tonal colour feel of all the Kampala TV stations.

Its news anchors are formally and stylishly dressed and come across as cordial and civil.

What NTV lacks, however, is content. That is to say, they have news that is not news, very much like their cousin the Daily Nation newspaper of Nairobi, which has good form, good print quality and colour separation, good font type and general layout and good distribution and circulation by East African standards.

But, alas, the substance and content is just not there except, occasionally, in the opinion and commentary sections.

In its reports on the Maj. Gen. Kazini murder and going back to the September riots in Uganda, NTV gave and give the impression that their news is edited and presented for people whose education stopped at O'Level.

The same blandness and lack of penetrating questions that are the standard at the Daily Nation, are the character of NTV. Perhaps that is the official editorial policy. Perhaps, jolted by the experience of the Uganda government initially refusing to grant them an operating licence, they decided to tone down and avoid any clashes with the state.

But bland and totally lacking in insight is what NTV's news is, as is too WBS TV's news, and of course UTV (or UBC television).

What is said by the president or Prime Minister or a minister or an MP or a cabinet minister, goes. Even when the comments are redundant and should at least come with some qualification, the television news studiously gives the viewers nothing additional.

"The minister of state for health has called upon the youth to plan for a better Uganda". As said is as broadcast. No asking what that means, no editorial line adding that the youth cannot plan when they don't have jobs. Nothing. The Big Man has spoken, so the big man must have had a point, so report that point as the Big Man stated it.

All this blandness has been compounded by the clampdown on the media in the wake of the September riots. The TV news says nothing and for the foreseeable future, appears likely to say nothing.

The comments to the Daily Monitor by Phoebe Kazini, widow of the late army officer --- published on Thursday Nov. 12, 2009, were a welcome break from the trend the Kampala newspapers had started to take in reporting on the Kazini murder.

The story line that he had died drunk and during a fight with his mistress had been served to the readers as it was. No skepticism, no questions asked.

Most interestingly, the state-owned New Vision newspaper, on Friday Nov. 13 also published a front-page story that quoted detectives as suggesting that there might be more to the Kazini murder than was first thought and first reported.

This at least redeems Ugandan journalism and offers hope that all is not yet lost.

Of course a certain online newspaper titled the Uganda Record was the first media company in the country to question the whole set of reports about a Draru killing Kazini in a drunken fight.

There is nothing spectacular in that and no great achievement on our part. Questioning and re-thinking everything should be the norm in the media.

END