During my student days in Kampala, Uganda’s Red Pepper was only a print publication but I remember some religious organizations went to the streets demonstrating against its circulation.
Now, years later, Orange Uganda has allegedly done the same, by pulling down its adverts from the controversial no-nonsense tabloid.
Fox News is reporting that the global telecom company Orange has withdrawn its advertising contract with the tabloid after it printed the names of 200 suspected homosexuals following the country’s enactment of anti-gay laws. The firm reportedly pulled down the ads after human rights lobby All Out’s 77,000 members petitioned it to “remove the advertisements.”
However, a TechMoran insider reports that Orange Telecom’s contract with the Red Pepper was not paying much and ended in early March and the tablod didn’t bother to renew it as they had better paying advertisers.
Another source says the move by Red Pepper to publish the names was within the new anti-gay law and the tabloid need not to conform to demands of extremists to get business. We will update you on this story in a bit.