It�s official: Btv favours the BDP
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Thursday August 31, 2017 16:34
Consequently, Makgonatsotlhe has ruled that the national broadcaster should immediately take steps to ensure “equitable, inclusive and balanced reporting”.
The findings are contained in a report released on Wednesday, which followed a complaint filed by the Botswana National Front deputy president, Prince Dibeela in February 2016.
Dibeela had on February 23, 2016 lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman alleging that Btv rarely aired programmes of opposition parties and regularly “bombarded the public” with BDP “propaganda”.
Dibeela cited the national broadcaster’s failure to air the unveiling of the tombstone of one of its former leaders, Kenneth Koma, in November 2015, as well as the reception of Margaret Nasha, a former BDP Member of Parliament, when she joined the opposition on February 14, 2016.
He further complained that Btv’s editorial policy totally excluded coverage of opposition party events, allowed the over-editing of shots to the point where the stories were rendered incomprehensible. Dibeela also claimed Btv’s editorial policy allowed the late airing of opposition news stories after the events, “when people would have psychologically moved on and were no longer expecting them”.
“This amounts to abuse of public facility and is tantamount to maladministration,” the complaint read. An investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman found that Btv had covered a total of 89 political events between June 2016 and May 17, 2017 and of those covered, 73 (82%) were for the ruling party while only 16 were for the combined opposition, Botswana Congress Party (BCP) included. Makgonatsotlhe said this had resulted in injustice to other parties while giving the ruling party unfair advantage.
“In my assessment, and unless some information has been left out, the picture painted by the document cited is not one of equity, balance and inclusiveness in the coverage of political party activities,” he said.
“It cannot be equitable, in my view that out of 89 political party events aired on a national broadcaster who seeks to ensure that the public is fully informed of the policies and programmes of all political players and to provide equity and balance in their coverage of such, one party enjoys 82% coverage compared to 18% for the rest.”
He said the issue of newsworthiness as argued by Btv could not be considered, because it could not be true that out of 89 events only 16 from the combined opposition were found to be newsworthy compared to 73 from the ruling party.
With reference to activities of leadership and high ranking government officials being given preference, the Ombudsman said he also found that inapplicable in this case as all the events listed were clearly political in nature and had nothing to do with government policies and service delivery.
“This is failure to achieve balance and equity in the coverage of such activities. Btv therefore gave one party an undue advantage over the others.” The Ombudsman said it was imperative for a democratic country with institutions such as Btv to be established by law, which spells out their mandates and governance structures. He said the institutions should be transparent in the discharge of their mandates and functions and be accountable to the nation and Parliament.