a lack of the freedom of the press. coverage we can afford to stay silent when it comes to the fans of the humans and see the wife who fools who have decided to put their trust in us. my name is jane paris and i work a d w. this is state of the news africa on the program today the fight for fair play uganda's opposition says' the ruling posse is using the coronavirus pandemic to steal the upcoming election with political rallies back they say their message isn't reaching voters because the president is blocking dave grohl cost or hear from the young hopeful who wants to pollute you where will 70 from office. i present myself

as a people to give up all these resources what we need right now is a leadership that we need to lead us through these dictatorships right now i was responding i know that i am fully qualified to lead uganda. but does pop star bobby why have the staff to be president. christie want to welcome to news africa it's good to have your company it is 6 months to go until you can do is presidential election and campaign ready have been bad because of the coronavirus pandemic the electoral commission has candidates to use media in states to get their message to voters but the opposition say's they don't have fair access to the country's broad costa's in a moment i'll be talking to the man who's emerged as the strongest presidential

aspirant but 1st this report on the country's 1st virtual campaign. betty met on the radio for information about uganda's elections due in february next year she loves political rallies but she won't attend any this time uganda's electoral body fat is banned them full stop the spread of the coronavirus now you'll get i did not get him i like it when a candidate talks to me directly and i can also ask what i want entirely depending on the radio is going to be hard. on top of print candidates now have to mainly campaign via the radio television and the internet. we are in the 3rd stage of community transmissions it means that we need to be one that

an undefined ways or buck 50 in the new normal and that just from the conventional ways of campaigning but stopping candidates from physically campaigning for votes has not gone down well with the opposition vested accuse president yoweri museveni of using the pandemic to manipulate the electoral process this is. simply outrageous that. anybody. that. held in such an environment limited to media can be even more story monterrey are considered to be an election that is free or fair right from simpson to the end this is about 70 but the government maintains that it is public health fast we are all our way and that could be demented is here in uganda and we are also mandated to make

sure that ugandans are given information and they are protected in one way. so it would be very unfortunate for anyone to believe that government is taking advantage of the situation but even media campaigning will be difficult demand for could overwhelm local stations and the country's online network more than 2000 candidates are vying for elective public offices from village level to the presidency all at the same time even if you committed all the time on the $292.00 radio stations for a period of 3 months or so still you would not be able to meet the demand so where are people going to campaign from even if you decided to say ok fine some will use radios others will use other social media platforms the internet penetration

in uganda doesn't exceed 50 percent. for voters like match that could mean not getting information from some pan debates and for the politicians whose message you want to reach that could cost them have. so how will the inability to hold election rallies affect the campaign that is a question i put to ugandan activist robin also known as pop star bobby wine sure it's actually not only the inability to hold rallies but we cannot meet we cannot go on radio stations he loves them oh supposed to go on a radio station the military surrounded the radio station beat up people and step into wristing on how to sing them in uganda why the regime why the mean is so that people from the ruling party are going around holding must rallies

and must processions the people there be members of the opposition particularly those from the people power movement which is unda which is having the national unity platform as a political wing are completely not allowed to express themselves to meet people or to have any kind of political engagement that is the situation you know although the people of uganda are fighting back mrs caird let me let's talk about the election itself your country uganda has had the same president for navy 3 decades now what did the opposition in the country more than 3 decades fair enough it what did the opposition stand a better chance if it were united you've not been able to form alliances without the opposition members isn't that self-defeating. well i must say yes unity is a solution against any dictatorship and we have examples in the recent past and the

most recent being the election in my loudly that was massive no one by the opposition because they came together but again i must be quick to say that the opposition does not only mean the politicians but he means the people that are opposed to the dictatorship in uganda i and my team of spent the last 2 years talking to all the political players or the political groupings in uganda so that we can come together unfortunately they have been in a lot of interests that we have not been able to agree. that being seen i know that the people of uganda we are here to vast i convinced that the people of uganda already united this really been telling us why the people power movement and for the sake of the election that i together with my team i had to create. the political wing of the people power movement and that is the national unity platform we did this because we knew that we had to answer the cries of the

people to unite we established the national the national unity platform to unite all forces of change but it had to come as a political party and right now as we speak the moderates and lady of people are crossing to the national you just please so i am less interrupt you there because i do want to ask you this right you what do you have to say it's it to uganda and so think that you've done a great job in using your voice to amplify the voices of 5 this is especially young people in the country but they argue that that doesn't necessarily make you presidential material. well i'm not here because i'm presidential material there are so many people who are presidential material that in their thousands of degrees and have a voice either can become zia i present myself as the glue i present myself as

a group to put together all these resource what we need right now is a leadership that will lead us through this dictatorship right now as we speak i know that i'm fully qualified to lead uganda but again i know that it's not my qualifications alone it's a qualifications of all the governors that one change this is i'm not doing it as a person we have doing this as a team but again i must also see that i am presidential my didn't i'm well educated i'm weary sites and we're troubled but most importantly if we have to compare with a president that has presided over our country for more than 34 years he was he is not as educated as i am he was not as great people as i am and you was around my age when he came to power when he took over the country fair i want to believe that i am as fully as him or even more serious than i want to bring this conversation see you mr you because what is it that you are offering you can't instruct us about

some of your policy let's talk about next year's election assuming you get the job and you are president of uganda what is the 1st thing for example that you will do as the president. i together with my team want to put an end to a low less leadership we have 5 core principles that we are targeting one is a rule of law and respect for human rights which you don't have in uganda the laws exist we have the most beautiful constitution and we have amazing laws which we do not respect which the government in uganda does not respect to want to return the rule of law and the respect for human rights as a common person one of our biggest cries as being the head of state that because we knew so many people that we shouldn't be losing 300 more than 300 children a day and more than 1000 women giving birth died in uganda on a daily basis one to improve the health sector one to improve education who want to

improve agriculture because that is the bedrock of our economy we want to bring back the ownership of the of the natural resources and one of our country to the hands of the people and most importantly finally we want to unite our deeply divided country divided along ethnic class and religious and political lines one to unite our country and then prepare project it better image of our country because we as you can and we are better than they we being represented or rather misrepresented all right that is rob it's getting better known as talking to us from kampala uganda thank you. the global tourism industry is battling to survive in the pandemic here's a look at how the search will tools of bringing visitors to atlanta. this is what truism looks like in some 2020 virtual pictures of the run and traditional thatched

houses and the capital kigali. we've used that a lot during this lockdown time when people were not travelling to entice people. to come back without the pandemic all this would have been peak time for tourism in 2018 the industry brought more than 400000000 euro in revenues to the small central african country and now results next in the single monteagle you see only local tourists and. young digital entrepreneur paktika who takes photographs of the place from every angle to create a virtual tour of this and other sites. i realize. as a country and in general also africa was presented on google maps on digital mars and disses where the idea came from i realized this technology we could do

it ourselves and it was affordable. patrick carr on what teamed up with state agencies now plants under way to integrate his virtual tour with the booking app so that once all travel bans lifted digital experiences can easily become real. and that's it for now see you next time be sure to check out the stories on africa and our facebook and twitter. world set. to go beyond this. as we take on the world. the stories that matter to your country that would never. be.

made for mines. tells the truth. of course the subconscious always a world without beethoven i can't begin to imagine. with a. start september 16th. for you. welcome to arts and culture it takes some pretty extraordinary measures these days to put on a concert safely here in europe where the coronavirus is somewhat contained at least for now organizers are trying out all kinds of methods will they change the way we attend performances that question coming up on the show and. stories

untold nonwhite known male and queer voices in american art finally. getting their fair do's. and a part of the former border between east and west berlin now covered in you've got it coronavirus graffiti. but 1st off for months now musicians have been wives streaming from their living rooms their bedrooms madonna even addressed fans from her bath tub but when and how will we get back to real in person concerts right now in large parts of the world it's completely unthinkable but here in europe in some places people are already doing it here are some of the ways how. this is probably the easiest way to feel safe and keep your distance to get out into nature the audience seated on a lake pastures and cows the biggest threat to the musicians is of getting their

feet wet.