A healer must listen as well as speak

Mmegi Editor | Monday March 16, 2026 08:50

Instead, the relationship between the country’s sixth President and the Fourth Estate seems stuck in a cycle of mistrust and accusations.

The President’s recent comments at the Botswana National Front (BNF) leadership forum were not made in a vacuum. For years, Boko and his party felt written off. To be told week after week that you cannot win, to be ranked third when your own research suggests otherwise, that stings. For a politician who has fought tirelessly against the odds, the memory of those dismissive headlines is a scar that has not yet healed. However, there is a significant difference between being the underdog and being the nation’s leader. As President, Boko is no longer just the voice of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC); he is the First Citizen of Botswana. When he stands before his party and accuses a “purchasable cohort of journalists” of deliberate bias, he is not just letting off steam. He is framing the media as an adversary to his supporters. A free press is not always a comfortable one. Its job is not to print government press releases or to tell leaders only what they want to hear. Its duty is to ask the difficult questions, to hold power to account, and yes, sometimes to get the prediction wrong.

If journalists only wrote stories that politicians agreed with, we would not need a press, but a public relations firm. The President’s argument that the media was hostile to the opposition is a familiar complaint. But it is also a selective memory. Many journalists risked their own standing to cover the UDC’s rallies and other meetings, often facing the very state intimidation that Boko himself once decried. To now paint the entire profession with the same brush feels like a betrayal of those who fought to ensure his voice was heard. Furthermore, the President’s habit of questioning the credibility of the media, such as his previous claim that 90% of newspaper content is untrue, sets a troubling precedent. It sends a signal to his supporters, and more worryingly, to security agencies, that journalists are fair game. In other young democracies, such rhetoric has been the first step down a slope toward intimidation and censorship.

None of this is to say the media is blameless. The President is right to demand rigorous fact-checking and balance. The industry must self-reflect, particularly in an age where speed often trumps accuracy. If journalists cut corners, they hand ammunition to their critics. The solution to being misrepresented is not to attack the messenger but to engage with them. As we approach World Press Freedom Day, the nation watches. Healing is a two-way street. It requires the media to report responsibly, but it also requires a leader who understands that a country’s health is measured not by the silence of its newspapers, but by the freedom of their voice.

‘It’s time to bury the war hatchetand to forget where it lies’ -Viktor Yushchenko