Hands off our radio...

Editor | Friday April 30, 2010 00:00

For the media, both print and electronic, has become a free marketplace of ideas in many value-driven and politically mature societies.

These societies have discovered the undeniable link between the economic prosperity of their countries and media freedom. Those countries that previously had a free media, and decided to shackle it have come to pay a huge economic price.

Media freedom is thus antecedent to economic prosperity and stability.

The media is an important source of knowledge even for ill motivated terrorists. But it has also served to inculcate hope in victims of terror, the downtrodden and the disenfranchised.

In many non-democratic countries, the media has usually been manipulated to favour the interests of a minority, formed by a handful of selfish cliques. Take for example, the case of Zimbabwe. That country's economic demise took along with it a good measure of press freedom, and it can also be argued that with limited press freedom it became even more difficult to resuscitate the economy.

It is sad that we are seeing a movement in the same direction in Botswana. The Media Practitioners Act takes us a few giant steps in that direction. The media especially opposed it as it restricts debate and freedom of expression. We still do. Where there is no debate and media freedom is stifled, we cannot hope to have accountability and transparency in government. 

We have always maintained that the two departments of Broadcasting and Information Services should not be government owned.  By intimidating reporters and threatening or reprimanding them the ruling party is using its political muscle to restrict access to information that would give the general public a choice about who it wants to govern.

The public relies on good information to make choices about the determination of its destiny. A debate such as that hosted by Radio Botswana on Tuesday is healthy and must be encouraged.

It is strange that while these state media organs are not allowed to give coverage to the opposition parties, the BDP receives limitless coverage.

It is time  the consumers of information, the citizens, the voters, stand up for their right to receive balanced information about all the political interest groups in the country.

Botswana should not disintegrate into some control state comparable only to Stalin's USSR and Hitler's Germany. And it will if this persists.

                                                                     Today's thoughtIn this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued - they may be essential to survival.

                                                                   - Noam Chomsky