Press conferences a sham
Mmegi Editor | Thursday August 21, 2014 11:38
The trend is common across all sectors such as sports, political parties and even religious organisations. Journalists would be invited to a briefing and they find a room, conference room, or even compound, with political parties in particular, packed with members of the host organisation.
This has happened with Botswana Democratic Party, Umbrella for Democratic Change, Botswana Congress Party and Botswana Football Association, to mention but a few. These are organisations that constantly interact with journalists and therefore call press briefings on a regular basis.
For instance, during previous press conferences, the BFA made a promise to deal with this problem by taking control of its members, but there has not been any improvement.
Yesterday, the UDC hosted journalists at their offices in Gaborone. The media practitioners, who attended in large numbers, were denied seats as some UDC members refused to give seats to the journalists. To add insult to injury, when the journalists asked seemingly uncomfortable questions, they were booed by seated party supporters.
The same has happened at BCP and BDP press conferences.
It is because of this unfair and unprofessional practice that we appeal to organisations that request media coverage to treat our journalists with respect and dignity if we are to continue providing such coverage. This problem has been going on for years, but it has now reached a point that is a serious cause for concern. Whilst we acknowledge that news is the pillar of our survival, it is also important for our partners to appreciate that they need us to disseminate their messages to the people.
From today onwards, we will be monitoring each and every organisation that invites our journalists for briefings and should there be no change in behaviour, we will have no option but to withhold our services until such time as things have improved.
As a nation, we ought to benchmark with advanced democracies and learn from them. For instance, you will never watch on television an event where a hall packed with African National Congress members is purported as a press conference. Even in the most populous nation on earth, China, you will never watch a news conference packed with non-journalists. We appeal for professionalism across all sectors before we lose the respect of our neighbouring countries.
Today's thought
“The mind cannot support moral chaos for long. Men are under as strong a compulsion to invent an ethical setting for their behavior as spiders are to weave themselves webs.”
-John Dos Passos