The media should not blink, they must hold power to account
SPENCER MOGAPI | Monday May 18, 2026 11:20
And that there really is nothing to be gained by bringing this aspect of the debate back on the public discourse. What is however, irrefutable is the shiftless debate on the extent to which the media is capable of fulfilling and performing the roles ascribed to it. In an ideal world, the powerful and the media should not sleep together.
This is because according to old adage, the media’s role is to afflict the powerful while comforting the powerless.Power and the media still have to co-exist. Show me a society that has no free media and I will show you a dictatorship. In Botswana, the media has done an exceptional job detailing the picture of the country’s public health sytem, especially the shortages of medical supplies.The media has done exceptionally well narrating the story of collapsing schools infrastructure.
More still has to be done. A genuine attack of the media should be that they are not digging out corruption sufficiently enough.To criticise the media for that is to fail to accept that for the last twenty years Botswana media has been under attack.
It started under former president Ian Khama. And continued for all of the ten years of Khama’s tenure. Just when we thought former president Mokgweetsi Masisi would be different, he too brought a different war against the media – subtle but still comparable to what Khama had done.The jury is still out on what the texture of the current government towards the media is going to be. In one instance, they acknowledge the role of the media and in the next the attacks become shockingly virulent. The onus is therefore, on the media to be vigilant. Never let your guard down, we should tell them.
A media is only successful if it is able to run a profitable commercial side of its business.As we say above, that has not been the case in Botswana over a period of 20 years.That is why today we have private media that literally sucks up to government as a strategy of survival.I attended a meeting recently where it was hinted in passing that government might in the past have extended printing services to private newspapers, at a discount.That is a new low. What we are trying to say here is that the government attitude towards the media matters. Moreso in a country like Botswana where the State permeates every sector of the political economy.The media, in as much as it does not seek power, it should also not pretend to be a saviour.Left to their own vices, politicians cannot be trusted. By their very nature politicians are seldom honest – no matter how well meaning.Their overriding preoccupation is always the preservation of their power. And privilege. And it is only on few occasions that they, on their own, want to get even with the public.We should never kill the media to save a politician.
If that is true, it follows that no country should celebrate to watch a politician killing the media.The media in Botswana is today struggling with some painful truths.
It is the first time in the history of the country that power has changed hands between two parties.And the media is in real time learning that politicians are in a broad sense actually the same.That said, the media is still in denial. They are having a difficult time accepting that for themselves at least, the more things change, the more they stay the same.Not only is that painful to accept it is also awkward.Make no mistake, how the state relates to the media does matter. That relationship determines the extent to which the media is able to fulfill its mandate. That relationship also has a big impact on how the country’s democracy ultimately develops. Again, the media does not seek to extract any more powers or privileges for itself.
But it is hard to see how citizens can exercise their right to freedom of expression when the media is itself not free.If you tamper with media freedom, you are basically tampering with the elementary principles of a democracy. Being a journalist in Botswana today is not easy.The economy is working against all aspects of running a viable media platform.But, that is no excuse for the media to get cowed.
They should strive to continue telling the whole story even if it makes government look bad.There is of course a vicious circle in it all.Independence of the media is good. But so too is adherence to ethics.Every government would like not only good coverage but control of the media too.There is a huge difference between patriotism and propaganda. Because of that, no government should ever have veto powers over what media can report.And it looks like there are ongoing stealth efforts to conflate propaganda with patriotism.The media have a job clearly cut out for them. The media have to be awake to the big egos found in personalities inside this government. There is a temptation to shoot down the media, including saying the media is not sufficiently qualified to hold the government accountable.
Those egos are also behind the deep seated temptations to downplay the intellectual power across the media. There is also contempt, itself a result of self doubt among our politicians. In the main all political parties are the same. It is for that reason that we need a kind of media that is able to stand on its own. Not the kind that cowers to government whims in pursuit of freebies.Our media should never be flattered. A lot is expected of them by the public. And with the stakes so high, the last thing the public expects is under the desk alliances between state and media. This is a gov't that has struggled to assert its authority. This is a gov't that has also not been able to live to live up to own promises. It is a government that has been big on promises and not entirely big on delivery. And we all know why.It's all down to the economy. And let's be honest, things might still get worse.The media should state all these without let or hindrance, A great American playwright, Arthur Miller once said a good newspaper is like a nation talking to itself.
Our media might not as yet met such a high threshold as that set by Arthur Miller. But as a nation, we should be grateful we are talking.