Northern Ugandan journalists have launched an on-line newspaper called The Nile Times. The launch of this sister paper also marks the end of Lango Web as a source of news on Northern Uganda. Lango Web will gradually be transformed into a Lango portal.
Lango Web, the on-line resource that had been the main source of news on Lango and northern Uganda in general is no longer operating as a news source due to the birth of a sister on-line newspaper, The Nile Times, launched on 26 June 2009 by Northern Ugandan Journalists. The new site address is www.theniletimes.com.
The launch followed concerns by various northern Ugandan leaders about marginalization of the north in the Ugandan national press.
The Nile Times is destined to become Uganda’s 5th National Newspaper within a year. At the moment there are 4 main national papers in Uganda, all of which are published in the capital city Kampala and they tend to be dominated by articles from the south of the country.
The Nile Times external coordinator, Robert Egwea said: “Northern Uganda has been disadvantaged for more than two centauries and the people of that region have been left behind in terms of development and yet their plight is rarely covered in the national press. The Nile Times will be their voice”.
The new paper draws its name from river Nile. Its aim is to provide impartial coverage of events in various hot spots of the Nile Basin, starting from Northern Uganda, a region that has been a war theatre between the Lord’s resistance Army (LRA) rebels and the Government of Uganda for over 20 years.
According to the paper’s first editorial dated 26 June 2009, northern Uganda is crucial to the development of the Nile basin because it is endowed with enormous wealth including oil amid volatile political climate and yet it is located at the centre of the Nile Basin.
It also aims at providing a platform for the people of northern Uganda and other Nile Basin hot spots to express their views on issues that affect their lives.
Already, the publication has been used to reassert the historical role of the Luo, (Nilotic tribes that occupy much of Southern Sudan, northern Uganda and some parts of Eastern Uganda, Western Kenya and Northern Tanzania) in shaping the social-political development of Africa and modern world politics, citing President Obama as a direct descendant of the great Luo people.
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Bravo to all our northern journalists for this incentive you have taken. Now we shall be able to view our news, opinions,and development online.
Thanks for the great work well done.
Dear Sir,
I am very happy to see for the first time such as deep insight portrayed by the northern journalists to come up with the idea of Nile Time News papers. That is one t hing we can always do to enhenced developmet in a society that has suffered from marginalisation like Northen Uganda.
May the Lord God Bless your aspirations.