UDC’s position on media
DR PATRICK MOLUTSI | Monday December 15, 2025 06:00
Whilst it is not UDC's policy to respond to every claim or allegation made against the party, on this matter, it is appropriate to put the record straight. More so, because the claims in our view misrepresented what the President said and expected of the media.
The UDC in the past and present manifestos has a clear position that the media is a critical part of development and democracy. The media must be free and independent. The UDC has advocated for the Freedom of Information Act and has since coming to power. In 2024, I made sure that the President meets and briefs the media on key issues of national interest regularly. Press conferences on diamond sales, negotiations, Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP), and others are the case in point.
UDC's ministers and senior officials have been more accessible to the media and volunteered information on their ministries’ programmes. More importantly, the UDC has treated public and private media even-handedly. We are on course to turn our BTV into a public broadcaster. Some evidently, UDC is not hostile to the media. If anything, it has been some media houses - radio and print which have chosen to adopt an anti-UDC government stand. Be that as it may, UDC has not taken any negative stance against those. We have continued to give them correct information on issues on which we felt they misrepresented us.
Now, our understanding of the president's call to the media is that the media must up their game. They must research and report on factual evidence. He is calling on all institutions, not just the media, but also the parliament, public service, private sector, and even the Church, to do things differently in a new Botswana.
If you listen to his presentations on mining, agriculture, renewable energy, tourism and digitalisation, the common thread is transformation. It is a change. Calling for change away from past complacency and mediocrity is not an attack on anyone. Change is surely not easy, and some will resist it and want to maintain the status quo.
The President, like the UDC, come from the culture of criticism and self-criticism. It is that culture that UDC and its President are asking of the rest of the Society.