"You guys are bad for democracy. You are jeopardising our democracy." The bombshell was dropped on a private media reporter of the Botswana Gazatte, by the MoE Minister. Hon. Jacob Nkate. The Minister’s interview with the reporter raises awkward questions on the health of our democracy.
Batswana must remember, that all the dictators and all the enemies of democracy, start with the private media. Read the history of Nazi Germany and see how Hitler went for the private media; Read the history of fascist Italy and see how Mussolini muzzled the media; revise the history South Africa and see how the Vorsters were allergic to newspapers like the Guardian, New Age and the Spark and how they banned them and locked up the editors and reporters.
We know what is happening in Zimbabwe, as far as the private media is concerned. It is easy to appreciate: why our government is in cahoots with the situation in Zimbabwe under the guise of quiet diplomacy, after reading Hon Nkate’s views.
Hon Nkate, apparently would be happiest if the President would create a new Ministry with a euphemistic name of "Ministry of Press Freedom," under him, to demonstrate what he understands by Press Freedom. Before the creation of such Ministry, perhaps let us remind the Minister that we want press freedom to endure, to save Batswana from the propaganda that the BDP government, can pretend to be democratic when it tells the press what to write and what not to write and how to write what they want to write.
The Minister wants to enslave the minds of Batswana and win their hearts by overwhelming them with an image of a virtuous, competent, inimitable, ruling party that is squeaky clean. The BDP instead, should accept that it has a lopsided monopoly of propaganda to whitewash it. The government controls the public media BTV, Radio Botswana and the Daily News. All the private media, the newspapers and the limited-range radio stations combined, cannot match the public media at the command of the BDP. The public media has a captive audience.
Any Motswana with a TV set, a radio set or with a neighbour possessing such sets and within a walking distance of the Daily News distribution point, is a captive audience of the BDP propaganda. In the public media you read nothing, see nothing and hear nothing that does not depict BDP in good and awe-inspiring light as the ruling party. Ten times more Batswana listen to Radio Botswana, read the Daily News and watch BTV than Batswana who read or listen to private media channels, simply because the private print media, cost money which Batswana do not always have; the short-range private radio stations reach only a fraction of Batswana with radio sets. Already it is clear how the government controls the private media by its power to licence its terms of operation. The public media in the meantime, in the form of radio reaches every house, every shack and is heard in every creaky taxi, combi and any long distance bus transport service. Why is the Minister panicking with all the advantages his government has? How can the private media with such a narrow compass and limited range jeopardize our democracy? BDP government’s intolerance will do that better.
The Minister asks a pertinent question: Does the private media think the Minister’s government is inept? Precisely! Starting with his own Ministry, why has it not been able to collect millions,if not billions of Pula from those who were assisted with loans to study? Why has his Ministry been in the news in the recent past about student (mis)placement and teachers disaffections? What about the land (mis)allocation revealed by the Lesetedi Commission? What about the report of the Monthe Commission on Cattle Lung Disease which targeted certain opposition party politicians; it was supposed to be an enquiry into a matter of urgent public interest, what happened? What about the migration of Botswana nurses to greener pastures to the detriment of health services in the country. We all bask in the limelight of an image or a shining example of democracy,’ which implies that our democracy is based on the rule of law. But can we continue to claim that image after desecrating the Ombudsman Report on the Vice President and the BDF helicopters? This tendency is replicated in the Mfa road block saga. Other illustrations will be discovered if the private media refuse to be intimidated by the minister’s arrogant interrogation.
Crime is escalating: rape, armed robbery, ransacking of mortuaries and theft of corpses, economic crime, murder, misnamed "passion killings," and other common crimes. A less inept government would be handling this situation with more aplomb and not allowing the situation to slide. It is precisely the ineptitude of government which calls for the vigilance of the public on the mandate of government to serve the national interest. This vigilance can be exercised more impressively through the private media.
From his statements and questions, the Minister does not hide the fact that he would like to control the private media. He asks: "Facts are available and you guys decide to report in a tangential fashion..." Well, so many facts are available. Who must choose from these plethora of fasts and so many sides to these facts. Who must choose the facts and the side or the tangent from which to write or comment, the Minister or a representative of the private media? Then the Minister has the audacity to ask. "...Leagajang, what do you mean, by opposition talks get a boost?"’ What a question! Humpty Dumpty would have answered him, "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean –neither more nor less." The Minister not only wants to regulate the private media by policy or whim, but he wants to become a private media editor-general, doesn’t he?
The Minister, implicitly despairs of private media dancing to his tune and for this reason plans to influence his colleagues in the BDP, to fund own party newspaper I thought they already had Therisanyo’? It does not matter, if two or more -therisanyo’s serve the Minister’s plans better, why not! Particularly if it helps to keep the principle of press freedom intact.
