Ugandan TV station ban after president shown 'sleeping'

View photoUganda’n President Yoweri Museveni speaks during a press conference in Entebbe, on February 24, 201

Kampala (AFP) - Uganda's government on Wednesday banned one of the country's main television stations from covering presidential events after it aired images which it said showed President Yoweri Museveni having a snooze in parliament.

"The president has habits, he meditates and they know it, and still they go out and say he was sleeping," government media centre manager Dennis Katungi told AFP.

Government spokesman Ofwono Opondo confirmed that NTV Uganda, part of the Nation Media Group and east and central Africa's largest independent media house, would be punished.

"We have suspended their coverage of the president as we reconsider our relationship with them," he said, accusing NTV of a "lack of professionalism and biased coverage".

"The suspension should not be permanent, it's temporary, to make them think," Katungi added.

Museveni, aged 69, is one of Africa's longest-serving leaders, and has led the impoverished east African nation since 1986.

NTV Uganda said they had not been informed of the suspension.

Last year the government shut the country's two main independent newspapers for 10 days after they reported arguments among army generals over whether the president's son should succeed him.