This study examined the influence of public relations practices on journalistic independence at Daily Monitor, Uganda's leading independent daily newspaper and one of the East African region's most prominent voices for press freedom and accountability journalism. The study was motivated by growing concerns within Uganda's media landscape about the intensification of PR-driven information management strategies by government agencies, corporations, and political actors, and their potential influence on editorial independence, story framing, and investigative reporting capacity at major news organisations. Drawing on a cross-sectional survey of 108 editorial, reporting, and management staff at Daily Monitor, supplemented by key informant interviews with senior editors and focus group discussions with beat reporters, the study examined how media relations pressure, sponsored content arrangements, and source management dynamics influenced editorial autonomy, investigative journalism quality, and news framing independence. Descriptive statistics revealed moderate to high levels of PR pressure across all dimensions (means 3.42–3.87). Pearson correlation revealed significant negative relationships between PR practice intensity and journalistic independence (r = -0.584 to -0.718, p < .001). Multiple regression demonstrated that the three PR dimensions collectively explained 62.7% of variance in journalistic independence limitations (R² = 0.627, F = 37.14, p < .001). SEM path analysis confirmed media relations pressure as the strongest total effect predictor of independence reduction (total β = -0.498). Recommendations address editorial firewall strengthening, transparent PReditorial protocols, and investigative journalism capacity investment.