Public life depends on information people can trust. It is how people understand what is happening around them, make decisions, question those in power, and take part in society. This trust does not simply exist on its own. It has to be shaped through how information is produced and shared.

The African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME) operates within this process. It works with journalists, newsrooms, journalism training institutions, and public communicators across Uganda and the region to strengthen how reliable public information is produced and shared. It focuses on how journalism is practised and how it connects to the wider systems that shape the quality, credibility and reach of that information over time.

Why ACME exists

ACME exists to make the media a more effective platform for public affairs reporting, a stronger means of holding power to account, and a more vibrant space for public debate.

It was founded on a recognition that journalism systems were not producing enough sustained public interest reporting, and that neither academia nor newsrooms alone could close this gap. In 2005, Dr Peter Mwesige and MR Bernard Tabaire, then senior editors at the Daily Monitor and lecturers at Makerere University, began shaping an alternative institutional response. ACME emerged from that effort as a practical bridge between journalism practice, public communication, and evidence on how information systems function.

ACME was subsequently established in 2009 as a non-profit company limited by guarantee, and is registered as an indigenous NGO under Uganda’s NGO Act and Regulations (2017).

What ACME does

ACME’s work is organised around five mutually reinforcing programmes:

  • Continuing and mid-career training for journalists
  • Media and information literacy
  • Media monitoring and research
  • Freedom of expression and media rights advocacy
  • The Uganda National Journalism Awards

These functions reinforce each other. Research generates evidence on media performance and information environments. Training translates that evidence into improved practice. Awards reinforce professional standards. Advocacy helps sustain the conditions required for credible journalism and public communication.

ACME operates with a small core team supported by a wider network of trainers, researchers, and associates. It is governed by a general meeting of subscribers, a board of directors, and a management team responsible for day-to-day operations.

Its work is primarily based in Uganda, with regional engagement across East Africa and beyond, and participation by journalists from multiple other African countries.

The context in which ACME works

The environment ACME works in is  structurally shifting in ways that are reshaping journalism and public communication.

Misinformation and disinformation are now persistent features of information ecosystems. Verified reporting competes directly with content that is faster, more emotive, and more widely distributed, weakening the authority of fact-based journalism in public debate. At the same time, media and information literacy is unevenly developed, limiting the ability of audiences to consistently assess credibility and navigate complex information environments.

Media systems are also increasingly fragmented. The newsroom is no longer the central gatekeeper of information. Content is now produced and distributed across platforms, influencers, political actors, and automated systems, making consistent editorial standards harder to sustain.

This is compounded by declining investment in knowledge-based journalism. Financial pressure on media organisations has reduced support for investigative reporting, specialist coverage, and sustained public interest journalism, narrowing the depth and continuity of reporting.

These shifts mean the challenge is no longer only individual journalist capacity. It is the weakening of the systems that produce, mediate, and sustain journalism quality across content, practice, and institutions.

What ACME makes possible

ACME functions as an institutional anchor within this shifting environment. It connects evidence, practice and standards in ways that help sustain coherence across fragmented information systems.

Its work makes possible:

  • More reliable and consistent public interest reporting in fragmented media systems.
  • Stronger capacity to resist distorted or misleading information through professional verification practices and public literacy
  • Recovery of investigative and knowledge-based journalism capacity.
  • Better alignment between journalism training, newsroom practice, and public communication realities.
  • Evidence-informed media development and policy engagement across the region.

In effect, ACME helps maintain the connective tissue between journalism practice, public communication, and the systems that sustain them.

Why partner with ACME?

  1. Partnership with ACME is engagement with the systems that make credible journalism and reliable public communication possible.
  2. ACME strengthens the link between training, research, standards, and advocacy. This creates space for coordinated work across fragmented parts of the information ecosystem where shared standards and feedback loops have weakened.
  3. ACME helps sustain the skills, norms, and incentives required for deeper journalism. It also works with actors across the public communication space to improve the quality and credibility of information that shapes public understanding.
  4. ACME responds to growing information disorder in today’s media environments. It supports professional journalism and media and information literacy. This strengthens the ability of both producers and audiences to navigate complex and contested information spaces.
  5. ACME operates across the full chain from evidence generation to journalism practice and public communication to public accountability. It links content production with the systems that shape its quality and impact. This creates space for alignment between research, practice, and institutional response across the information system.